LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Sui 


THE  NEPTUNIAN 


WATER  THEORY 


CREATION. 

BY 

REV.  J.  M.  WOODMAN, 

Professor  in  Natural  Science,  Chico  Academy,  Cal. 

Author  of  "  God  in  Nature  and  Revelation,"  "  The  Song  of  Cosmology," 

"  Star  Dates  of  Human  History,"  "  The  Song  of  the  Morning 

Stars  in  Creation's  Grand  March." 


'  If  they  speak  not  according  to  thy  word  it  is  becattse 
there  is  no  truth  in  them" 


SAN  FRANCISCO  : 

BACON  &  COMPANY,  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTERS, 
Corner  of  Clay  and  Sansome  Streets. 
1888. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  A.  D.  1888, 

BY  J.  M.  WOODMAN, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Cognress,  Washington,  D.  C 


I? 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 

MA* 

CHAPTER  I. 

THREE  THEORIES  OF  CREATION  REVIEWED  ix  THE  LIGHT 
OF  ADMITTED  FACTS 9 

SECTION  1. 

The  Plutonic  or  fire  theory  stated 15 

Centro-eentrif  ugal   theory : .  16 

Heated  Nebulous  theory 17 

The  increase  of  heat  in  mining  shafts  no  evidence  of  a  hot 

center 19 

The  admitted  sedimentary  nature  of  primitive  granite  de- 
stroys the  Plutonic  theory 22 

The  theories  of  metatnorphic  rock  not  sustained 23 

Mining  shafts  increase  in  heat  according  to  chemical  action  25 

Causes  of  volcanoes  and  geysers  explained 26 

Geologists  dissatisfied  with  the  fire  theory.    Submarine 

volcanoes 28 

Diatoms  found  in  the  earliest  stratified  rock 31 

SECTION  2. 

The  Neptunian  theory  stated 32 

All  matter  created  at  once  in  cold  gas.   God's  power  need- 
ed to  move  matter.  The  first  cosmological  division. ...   33 
Probable  length  of  it.    The  first  condition  of  our  globe  in 
form 35 

SECTION  3. 
The  facts  of  science  support  the  Neptunian  theory.     In 

quantity,  order  and  constituent  elements  of  rock 36 

The  three  ways  that  gases  combine  into  rock 37 

How  rock  can  swim  in  water 38 

Explorations  made  of  the  Atlantic 39 


121791 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  A.  D.  1888, 

BY  J.  M.  WOODMAN, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Cognress,  Washington,  D.  C 


I? 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 

MA 

CHAPTER  I. 

THREE  THEORIES  OF  CREATION  REVIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT 
OF  ADMITTED  FACTS 9 

SECTION  1. 

The  Plutonic  or  lire  theory  stated 15 

Centro-centrif  ugal   theory : .   16 

Heated  Nebulous  theory 17 

The  increase  of  heat  in  mining  shafts  no  evidence  of  a  hot 

center 19 

The  admitted  sedimentary  nature  of  primitive  granite  de- 
stroys the  Plutonic  theory 22 

The  theories  of  metamorpliic  rock  not  sustained 23 

Mining  shafts  increase  in  heat  according  to  chemical  action  25 

Causes  of  volcanoes  and  geysers  explained 26 

Geologists  dissatisfied  with  the  fire  theory.    Submarine 

volcanoes 28 

Diatoms  found  in  the  earliest  stratified  rock 31 

SECTION  2. 

The  Neptunian  theory  stated 32 

All  matter  created  at  once  in  cold  gas.   God's  power  need- 
ed to  move  matter.  The  first  cosmological  division. ...  33 
Probable  length  of  it.    The  first  condition  of  our  globe  in 
form 35 

SECTION  3. 
The  facts  of  science  support  the  Neptunian  theory.     In 

quantity,  order  and  constituent  elements  of  rock 36 

The  three  ways  that  gases  combine  into  rock 37 

How  rock  can  swim  in  water 38 

Explorations  made  of  the  Atlantic 39 


21791 


4  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

We  once  had  a  hemisphere  of  land,  and  one  of  water 40 

The  climate  was  tropical,  as  attested  by  shells,  coral,  coal, 

and  saurians 41 

Also  by  tropical  animals,  flowers,  and  tropical  vegetation.  42 

Water  raised  the  mountains 45 

Sea  bottom  seen  there 46 

Rise  and  depressions  of  earth.  Cause  of  glacial  epoch 48 

Such  a  world  physically  adapted  to  man 50 

The  accumulating  evidence  that  our  earth  is  essentially  a 

ball  of  water 53 

The  reasons  the  Antediluvians  had  no  rainbow.. .  . .  54 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  NEPTUNIAN  THEORY  WAS  FIRST  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT 

IN    THE  BOOK  OF  JOB,  DATED   IN    THE  STARS.      EPIDRA- 

MATIC  ORATORIO 55 

Orient  the  place  for  such  a  poem 57 

First  question  established 58 

The  indictment  against  piety  amended 59 

The  prologue  ended  with  Satan  confounded 59 

These  persons  all  representative  characters 60 

Starting  the  drama  of  history.  Piety  endures  the  trials  of 

all  ages 61 

Job  rewarded  on  the  field.  Flood  passed 64 

Surrounded  by  universal  idolatry 65 

Certain  chapters  Messianic 66 

Resurrection  reached 68 

The  enemies  boast  of  the  secular  arm  of  law 69 

The  Reformation  reached 70 

The  voice  of  spice I'l 

Dead  organic  matter,  as  fossils,  speaking 73 

An  explanation  of  the  story  of  Joshua's  miracle.  The 

three  friends  silenced.  Secular  education  personified.  75 
True  loyal  prayer,  against  unsupported  illegal  faith,  and 

prayer  without  faith 77 

The  Copernican  system  seen  by  Job,  with  the  sedimentary 

nature  of  granite 79 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  O 

The  rotundity  of  Earth  with  the  inside  water 81 

The  birth-place  of  ancient  icebergs 83 

The  telegraph  seen  and  dated 84 

Description  of  certain  fossils 85 

The  grand  future  of  the  church  of  the  living  God 86 


CHAPTER  III. 

ALL  THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCES  TO  COSMOLOGY  ARE  IN 
HARMONY  WITH  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.  EARTH  STANDING 
IN  WATER.  FLOOD  CAUSED  BY  OVERFLOW  OF  THE  SEA. 

ONCE  IN  A  RING  OF  GASES.     ABOVE  THE  WATERS 87 

Moses  gained  his  first  ideas  of  Creation  here 88 

Power  born  in  the  hand  of  God 88 

Gravitation  accounts  only  for  centripetal  power 89 

A  stearn  world  born  but  not  yet  swaddled '. 92 

It  is  swaddled  in  gathering  and  condensing 93 

Tracing  gases  into  rock 95 

To  what  days  the  Mosaic  time  is  unadapted 96 

What  the  Mosaic  days  of  creation  do  mean 96 

G eneral  and  Special  Providence 99 


CHAPTER  LV. 

THE  Six  DAYS  OF  MOSES  FULL  OF  SCIENTIFIC  SUGGESTIONS 
SHOWING  THE  WORK  OF  GOD  TO  THE  END  OF  TIME 100 

SECTION  1. 

The  work  of  the  first  day 101 

Meaning  of  deep 102 

Figures  of  speech.    A  ring  of  waters  in  fluid  gases  first 

called  firmament 103 

These  days  are  not  literal 104 

SECTION  2. 

The  work  of  the  second  day 105 

Meaning  of  create.    Must  be  read  in  the  light  of  scientific 
facts 107 


6  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 

Moses'  point  of  observation.  First  firmament  tangible. . . .  107 
Moses,  in  vision,  confined  to  the  history  of  our  globe.    The 
history  of  other  planets  not  given 109 

SECTION  3. 

The  work  of  the  third  day.    The  steam  world  commences 

to  liquify 110 

The  scientific  problem  of  a  probable  pole-changing  solved.  112 

One  end  only  in  sunshine 112 

Why  it  did  not  rain  on  the  earth 113 

The  cause  of  the  first  chilled  climate.  When  it  turned  to 
torrid 115 

SECTION  4. 

The  account  of  the  fourth  day  in  figure  of  metonymy 116 

Recent  coal  periods 119 

SECTION  5. 

The  work  of  the  fifth  day.  Contrasts  are  found  in  the  sea, 

diatoms  begin  in  the  Gneiss  rock 121 

The  whale  of  the  Miocene  is  the  contrasting  animal,  as 

morning 122 

The  order  of  the  existence  of  animals  by  Moses  agrees  with 

facts 123 

Science  and  the  Bible  claim  substantially  the  same  thing 

in  reference  to  Special  Providence 125 

SECTION  6. 

The  work  of  the  sixth  day.  Beasts  are  the  evening.  Man 
is  the  morning 127 

Our  race  sprang  from  Adam 128 

The  cleansing  of  the  air  was  essential  to  the  introduction 
of  man 129 

Recent  volcanoes  argue  the  correctness  of  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count   130 

We  have  not  even  yet  reached  the  climax  of  good  breath- 
ing  132 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  question  as  to  what  kind  of  reading  shall 
yield  us  the  most  exquisite  enjoyment,  largely 
depends  upon  our  ability  for  self-development. 
Taste  in  reading,  as  in  eating,  is  often  an  educa- 
ted faculty.  The  relish  that  we  now  have  for 
many  kinds  of  food,  we  had  to  acquire.  We  all 
have  faculties  for  intellectual,  moral  and  spirit- 
ual enjoyment,  in  lines  of  thought  corresponding. 
These  must  be  developed  by  use.  Keader,  you 
have  the  ability,  if  you  will  allow  it  to  be  devel- 
oped, of  enjoying  a  perusal  of  this  sublime  sub- 
ject. Mere  sensational  reading  like  emotional  re- 
ligion has  its  field  of  enjoyment,  its  rills  of  happi- 
ness ;  but  it  is  changeable  and  uncertain.  Songs 
of  praise  and  devotional  reading  have  a  higher 
place  in  the  human  soul,  lasting  in  their  nature. 
Observation  and  historical  research  open  an- 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

other  field  of  enjoyment.  Language  and  loca- 
tion of  places  may  become  a  passion  in  the  mind. 
The  study  of  causes  in  nature,  at  best  but  sec- 
ondary, may  hold  the  mind  in  a  sweet  revery  of 
delight;  but  these  are  mere  rills  of  comfort  com- 
pared to  an  open  sea,  to  the  ability  of  reading 
and  comprehending  first  causes,  in  the  light  of 
prophetic  declarations. 

We  are  thrilled  in  the  presence  of  relics  of  an- 
cient history.  The  sight  of  a  mummy,  known 
to  be  an  ancient  person  of  historic  note  thrills  us 
with  admiration  and  agreeable  wonder,  as  in  the 
case  of  Rameses  II.  Three  thousand  years  seems 
a  long  time  ;  yet  it  is  easy  to  obtain  almost  any 
where  a  fossil,  fish  or  shell,  representing  as  many 
million  of  years.  No  where  else  are  the  "  Foot- 
prints" of  God  so  plain,  measuring  the  long  ages 
of  time,  as  seen  in  the  Bible. 

The  fact  that  you  have  not  been  accustomed 
to  read  on  this  subject  is  no  reason  why  you 
should  not  begin  at  once,  and  experience  the  in- 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

creased  reverence  for  God,  the  captivating  en- 
gagement of  thought,  and  the  exquisite  enjoy- 
ment of  soul,  as  a  result.  l)o  you  still  ask  what 
practical  benefit  will  this  knowledge  be  to  you  ? 
Let  us  rather  ask  what  harm  will  come  from  a 
general  impression  that  the  cosmological  utter- 
ances of  the  Bible  are  so  tangled  up  in  a  network 
of  scientific  suppositions,  as  to  cause  even  good 
men  to  drop  them,  as  parts  of  God's  inspiration 
to  man.  Such  results  are  already  produced  all 
over  the  land. 

The  Bible  has  been  assailed  on  its  cosmolog- 
ical sayings.  Shall  it  be  defended  ?  If  you  are 
so  fortunate  as  to  be  entrenched  in  the  belief 
of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  while  you 
are  unable  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  with- 
in, your  friends  may  not  be  so  fortunate.  Your 
children,  it  may  be,  will  return  from  school,  in. 
tent  upon  showing  you  the  discrepancies  with 
the  established  teachings  of  science.  If  these 
things  are,  as  they  purport  to  be,  given  by  inspi- 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

ration  of  God,  they  can  never  be  made  to  har- 
monize with  an  illogical  and  untruthful  cosmol- 
ogy. How  important,  then,  that  we  should  have 
the  right  theory. 

The  disciples  of  Jesus  were  asked,  "  Have  any 
of  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  believed  on  him  ? " 
Perhaps  before  you  purchase  you  ask,  Have  any 
men  of  scientific  notoriety  endorsed  these  views  ? 
Of  the  many  scores  of  good  words  given  by  ed- 
itors, lawyers,  doctors,  ministers,  teachers,  and 
professors  in  colleges,  I  have  room  only  for  a  few. 
Prof.  David  Swing  of  Chicago  said:  "  The  Nep- 
tunian theory  of  creation,  as  presented  in  Dr. 
Woodman's  book,  is  the  most  logical  presenta- 
tion of  cosmology  that  I  ever  read.  He  writes 
in  a  calm  and  truthful  style."  The  late  Prof. 
Norton  of  the  Gal.  State  Normal  said  :  "  You 
have  chosen  an  opportune  time  for  the  presen- 
tation of  your  book,  for  the  theories  of  cosmology 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  mighty  revolution,  in  which 
the  water  theory  is  likely  to  come  to  the  front." 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

Prof.  Reid,  President  of  the  State  University, 
said  :  "  The  subject,  as  you  present  it,  is  wonder- 
fully in  accordance  with  what  we  see  in  Nature  ; 
and  it  is  still  more  wonderful  that  you  should 
find  it  so  beautifully  set  forth  in  the  Bible.'' 
Prof.  LeConte,  of  the  same  University,  said  : 
u  Your  theory  is  a  wide  departure  from  every- 
thing hitherto  written  upon  the  subject.  I  will 
say  this  of  it;  it  accounts  for  more  unexplained 
phenomena  than  any  theory  before  presented.  I 
will  give  you  this  item,  which  I  know  to  be  cor- 
rect. The  Magnolia  tree  in  the  Tertiary  period, 
grew  and  blossomed  as  far  as  80  degrees  north." 
Numerous  bodies  of  clergymen  have  endorsed 
the  theory  as  a  just  and  beautiful  presentation 
of  Scripture ;  many  as  the  "  only  theory  with 
which  Moses'  Genesis  of  Creation  can  be  recon- 
ciled." The  say-so  of  others  may  satisfy  the 
indolent  and  careless,  but  to  enjoy  the  subject 
you  must  read  and  digest  these  grand  truths  for 
yourself. 


or  THF. 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


CHAPTFR  I. 

THREE  THEORIES   REVIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT 
OF  SCIENTIFIC  FACTS. 

IN  the  study  of  Nature,  aided  only  by  natural 
phenomena,  effect,  suggesting  cause,  is  every- 
where apparent.  These  effects  variously  com- 
pounded point  with  accuracy  only  to  secondary 
causes.  First  causes  are  hidden  far  behind  all 
existing  appearances. 

Unaided  nature  leaves  man  to  seek  first  causes 
only  by  hypotheses.  As  might  be  expected,  on 
the  same  subject  scientists  widely  differ  in  theo- 
ry. Such  reasoning  must  ever  leavea  large  mar- 
gin for  opinion. 

Notwithstanding  the  uncertainty  of  all  such 
modes  of  reasoning,  still  that  hypothesis  must 
ever  possess  the  greatest  weight,  that  best  ac- 
cords with  the  largest  number  of  existing  facts. 
Reasoning  a  priori,  from  the  providing  care  of 


14  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

nature's  God,  as  seen  in  stores  of  coal,  oil,  iron, 
copper,  and  various  kinds  of  precious  metals,  we 
might  reasonably  conclude  that  he  who  created 
the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  religious  nature  in 
man  would  carefully  provide  for  the  full  gratifica- 
tion of  both.  Knowing  God's  nature,  reason 
would  suggest  that  what  is  wanting  in  nature 
must  somewhere  be  supplied  by  special  reve- 
lation of  God. 

The  book  of  nature  coupled  with  the  Bible 
would  be  a  necessity ;  not  only  for  a  complete 
worship,  but  for  a  full  cosmology.  We  should 
expect  the  two  volumes,  when  rightly  rendered, 
to  correspond.  A  noted  atheistical  lecturer  up- 
on cosmical  changes  stated  in  a  series  of  lectures 
in  Chico,  CaL,  that  the  "  Bible  theory  of  creation 
is  decidedly  watery.  By  the  statements  of  this 
book,  we  should  conclude  that  the  center  itself  is 
one  vast  body  of  water,  holding 'upon  its  bosom 
a  crust  of  earth."  As  a  believer  in  the  Plutonic 
theory,  and  having  no  reverence  for  the  Bible,  he 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         15 

added,  "  What  fool  does  not  know  better?"  What 
he  gave  as  a  "  Bible  Theory,"  we  will  assume  as 
a  scientific  hypothesis;  and  rest  the  proof  of  the 
same  upon  the  facts  in  nature  which  scientists,  in 
advocating  the  Plutonic  theory,  have  given  us. 

It  will  be  the  object  of  this  chapter  to  show 
that  the  more  recently  developed  facts  in  geology 
point  unmistakably  to  the  Neptunian  theory  of 
Creation.  This  will  be  done  by  comparing  the 
three  theories,  and  each  with  lines  of  facts  which 
have  been  well  established.  It  will  be  necessary 

SECTION  1, 

To  STATE  THE  PLUTONIC  THEORY 
OF  THE  SCHOOLS. 

1.  That  all  matter  existed,  or  was  created  in 
a  primeval  state  of  heat.     One  hypothesis  is,  that 
all  matter  of  our  system  was  concentrated  in  one 
heated  ball  as  a  central  sun. 

2.  That  planets  are  portions  of  this  matter, 


16  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

thrown  off  by  a  rapid  rotary  motion  of  the  sun. 
Properly  named,  this  theory  was  the  centro-cen- 
trifugal  theory,  now  quite  out  of  date.  That 
this  theory  might  be  true,  the  sun  must  have  turn- 
ed upon  its  axis  with  a  velocity  sufficient  not  only 
to  destroy  gravitation  at  its  surface,  now  twenty- 
seven  times  that  of  the  Earth,  but  with  a  force 
capable  of  throwing  Jupiter,  fourteen  hundred 
times  the  size  of  the  Earth,  out  into  space  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  million  of  miles,  and  Neptune 
over  two  billion  of  miles.  When  we  consider  that 
our  sun  now  turns  on  its  axis  only  once  in  twen- 
ty-seven days,  we  conclude  that  a  vivid  imag- 
ination must  have  supplied  the  machinery  necess- 
ary for  such  astounding  results  in  the  very  face 
of  forbidding  facts.  This  theory  made  no  pro- 
vision for  the  encircling  waters,  sufficient  to 
wrap  the  entire  surface  of  the  globe  three  miles 
deep,  nor  for  the  enveloping  atmosphere.  Grad- 
ually this  ancient  theory  has  been  modulated  into 
the  Nebulous  Theory. 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          17 

3.  The  more  popular  teaching  of  today  is, 
that  matter  existed  in  a  highly  heated  state  in  the 
form  of  a  diffused  cloud.  Steel,  in  his  "  Four- 
teen Weeks  in  Geology,"  suggests  that  "'From 
unknown  causes,  this  cloud-matter  began  to  re- 
volve about  a  center  or  sun.  This  nucleus  drew 
matter  direct  to  itself  from  all  parts  of  our  sys- 
tem. Other  portions  revolving  were  thrown  off, 
and  formed  new  centers  for  planetary  gathering, 
as  they  respectively  took  up  their  orbicular  march 
about  the  sun.  This  fiery  mist  is  supposed  to 
have  come  together  in  a  heated  state.  The  plan- 
ets, at  least,  have  since  been  cooling,  though  as 
yet  having  but  a  thin  crust.  To  this  theory  of 
primeval  heat,  in  some  form,  all  our  text  books 
conform.  A  theory  so  long  and  so  universally 
accepted  might  be  supposed  to  have  some  solid 
facts  upon  which  to  rest.  But  really  it  has 
less  to  sustain  it  than  had  the  Ptolemaic  theory  of 
Astronomy  :  that,  at  least,  had  observation  in  its 
favor,  but  this  fails  even  here.  It  is  a  curious 


18  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

circumstance  in  this  guess  work  of  results,  that 
whether  heat  is  made  to  increase  on  an  average 
one  degree  in  fifty  feet,  as  given  by  many  geolo- 
gists, or  one  degree  in  one  hundred  feet,  as  given 
by  others,  precisely  the  same  results  are  reached, 
viz.,  fifty  miles  crust,  and  intensely  heated  matter 
beyond.  This  assumption  is  based  upon  the  sup- 
posed fact  that  the  internal  heat  traverses  the 
rock  by  conduction.  If  this  were  true,  then  the 
degree  of  heat  gained  in  any  one  hundred  feet  of 
rock,  as  you  descend  into  the  Earth's  crust, 
would  be  the  approximate  measurement  of  any 
other  hundred  feet  in  the  same  shaft;  but  the  re- 
verse of  this  is  true.  No  two  measurements  seem 
to  be  alike.  The  miner,  as  a  practical  geologist, 
in  this  regard  knows  that  this  heat  is  generally 
caused  by  chemical  action  of  the  rock  upon  which 
you  have  let  in  air  or  water,  or  both.  This  heat 
is  found  to  vary  according  to  nature  of  the  rock 
which  you  expose.  If  the  rock  is  rich  in  pyrites 
of  iron  or  lime,  in  any  of  its  numerous  forms, 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          19 

then  disintegration  is  abundant  and  much  heat  is 
generated  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  where  all 
disintegrating  elements  are  wanting,  there  is  no 
perceptible  increase  of  heat. 

4.  The  theory  of  the  continued  increase  of 
heat,  according  to  the  ratio  noticed  as  you  sink  a 
shaft  a  few  hundred  feet  into  the  Earth's  crust, 
if  it  proves  anything  proves  too  much,  and  is 
therefore  false.  Experiments  extensively  made 
in  the  Virginia  mines  of  Nevada,  and  particular- 
ly in  the  Foreman  Shaft,  show  the  increase  to 
be  very  uneven  ;  differing  from  one  degree  in 
twelve  feet  to  ojie  in  two  hundred  feet.  It  even 
grows  colder  as  you  descend  some  kind  of  rock, 
a  degree  in  one  hundred  feet.  The  degree  of 
heat  is  always  regulated  and  gauged  by  the  rock 
you  pass.  If  the  rock  will  disintegrate  readily, 
it  gives  out  more  heat ;  but  if  the  rock  may  lie 
exposed  in  the  sun  and  rain  without  disintegration, 
it  throws  out  no  heat  in  the  shaft.  Yet  from  ex- 
periments made  in  the  Foreman  Shaft,  notwith- 


20  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

standing  these  varieties  of  rock,  yet  at  the  2,100 
foot  level  it  is  found  that  the  average  increase  is 
one  degree  in  twelve  feet.  At  this  rate,  at  twenty- 
five  miles  towards  the  center  you  would  encounter 
heat  above  4,300  deg.  Fahr.  Chemists  will  ad- 
mit that,  after  due  allowance  for  pressure  at  such 
a  depth,  yet  the  granite  with  all  known  substances 
would  fuse  at  this  heat.  The  Plutonic  hypothe- 
sis makes  the  crust  in  Nevada  less  than  twenty- 
five  miles,  perhaps  the  weakest  on  the  continent. 

Experiments  in  Mexico,  upon  this  line  of  rea- 
soning, would  make  the  crust  twice  as  thick.  Now 
from  a  well  established  law  in  philosophy,  a  press- 
ure upon  liquid  on  the  inside  of  a  cylinder  im- 
parts its  pressure  to  every  part  of  the  cylinder  at 
the  same  time.  A  pressure  capable  of  breaking 
the  crust  in  any  place  should,  at  least,  cause  all 
the  openings  to  emit  lava  at  the  same  time.  But 
this  is  not  the  historic  action  of  volcanoes  ;  one 
emits  while  another  sleeps. 

It  is  a  historic  fact  observed  within  the  present 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          21 

century,  that  a  volcanic  mountain  rose  up  from  a 
comparatively  level  plane  in  Mexico,  in  one  night, 
to  the  height  of  1,695  feet.  On  the  assumption 
that  lava  comes  from  the  center  of  the  earth,  why 
should  not  the  above  pressure  have  found  the 
weaker  crust,  and  Nevada  have  been  the  place  of 
eruption  instead  of  Mexico  ?  and  why  should  not 
the  three  hundred  open  vents  of  Earth  have  emit- 
ted lava  at  the  same  time  ?  The  theory  will  not 
bear  philosophic  tests. 

The  Russian  report  of  the  increase  of  heat  is 
only  one-fourth  that  given  in  Nevada.  Who  be- 
lieves, therefore,  that  the  crust  there  is  four  times 
as  thick  as  in  Nevada  ?  The  whole  subject  shows 
that  the  increase  of  heat  in  the  shaft  proves  noth- 
ing as  to  the  interior  of  Earth,  and  nothing  as  to 
the  thickness  of  its  crust. 

5.  To  establish  the  Plutonic  theory,  it  is  at 
least  necessary  to  demonstrate  that  the  granite, 
which  all  hold  to  be  the  under  rock,  is  the  un- 
stratified  Plutonic  foundation  of  all  stratified  rock. 


22  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

Recent  facts  have  demonstrated  that  the  granite 
is  a  sedimentary  rock,  or  rock  deposited  in  water. 
This  being  admitted,  although  contradicting  the 
teachings  of  all  the  older  text  books,  some  writ- 
ers, among  them  is  Steel,  in  order  to  harmonize 
the  Plutonic  theory  with  these  stubborn  facts, 
have  assumed  that  the  primitive  granite,  which 
by  the  theory  must  have  been  trap  or  lava,  has  all 
been  worn  away  by  disintegration  of  water  and 
ice,  or  both  ;  and  again,  by  water  deposited  as  we 
now  find  it.  But  what  was  a  white-hot  globe  of 
lava  doing,  while  water  and  ice  were  tearing  and 
grinding  its  lower  crust  to  powdered  sand?  We 
have  secondary  granite,  but  its  structure  is  very 
different  from  primitive  granite.  Besides  contain- 
ing hard  pebbles  and  boulders  of  other  stone,  it 
is  friable,  and  easily  disintegrated  under  exposure. 
It  is  a  bad  theory  that  is  driven  to  such  unheard- 
of  suppositions  for  its  support.  Nothing  is  more 
evident,  if  the  granite  is  the  under  rock,  and  sed- 
imentary, as  represented  and  known  to  be,  than 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          23 

that  the  Plutonic  theory  is  completely  without 
foundation. 

6.  The  modern  theory  of  metamorphic  rock, 
occasioned  by  internal  heat,  is  also  false.  This 
theory  maintains  that  the  granite,  slates,  and  mar- 
ble existed  so  near  to  the  great  body  of  internal 
heat  that  they  must  have  been  metamorphosed. 
Facts  demonstrate  that  these  rocks,  as  a  rule,  were 
never  in  heat  equal  to  700  deg.  Fahr.  Such  a 
heat  will  readily  disintegrate  any  of  these  forma- 
tions. Any  one  can  demonstrate  this  by  melting 
a  little  lead  upon  a  piece  of  slate,  marble,  or  gran- 
ite. The  furnace  is  found  to  be  the  best  general 
test  of  the  origin  of  rock. '  Lava,  having  been  in 
a  melted  state,  will  not  disintegrate  up  to  the  melt- 
ing point,  but,  as  a  rule,  will  readily  melt  at  the 
white  heat.  Granite,  the  slates,  marble,  and  rock 
in  general,  of  a  sedimentary  formation,  will  dis- 
integrate at  a  comparatively  low  heat,  but  they 
will  not  melt,  except  with  alkaloids,  or  flux,  and 
then  only  at  a  very  high  degree  of  heat.  This 


24  THE    NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

test  shows  all  the  primitive  rock,  including  inject- 
ed seams,  to  have  been  formed  in  the  sea,  with 
no  heat  to  change  their  structure  since.  There 
are  a  few  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  disintegration, 
as  clay  rock. 

7.  If  the  granite  were  not  sedimentary,  we 
could  not  account  for  the  great  quantity  of  sedi- 
mentary rock  this  side.  Among  the  authors  of 
our  text  books  there  seems  to  be  a  general  vague- 
ness concerning  the  origin  of  stratified  rock,  ex- 
cept in  regard  to  coal,  which  all  admit  came  out 
of  the  air.  If  we  should  assume  that  the  granite 
was  lava,  but  all  the  stratified  rock  since,  until 
you  reach  the  region  of  conglomerate,  came  from 
the  air,  how  shall  we  account  for  the  close  simi- 
larity in  appearance  and  structure  of  the  gneiss 
and  granite  ?  Theory  has  piled  thirty  or  forty 
miles  of  this  sedimentary,  stratified  rock  above 
the  granite  ;  whence  did  it  come  ?  Any  openings 
in  the  granite  would  let  up  only  lava.  Whence 
the  material  for  sediment?  We  shall,  farther  on, 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          25 

show  that  all  primitive  rock,  like  the  coal,  came 
from  the  gases  of  the  atmosphere  once  envelop- 
ing this  globe. 

8.  Our  best  scientists  now  readily  unite  with 
the  keen  sighted  miner  in  accounting  for  this  in- 
crease of  heat  as  you  pass  down  the  shaft,  on 
entirely  different  principles  from  those  stated  in 
the  text  books.  Prof.  Joseph  Le  Conte  says  that 
"  Chemical  action  of  air  and  water  upon  the 
rock,  as  you  descend  into  the  Earth's  crust,  is 
undoubtedly  the  cause  of  the  increase  of  heat." 
Again  he  says,  "  This  heat  is  regulated  and 
gauged  by  the  constituents  of  the  rock  that  you 
pass."  Now  admitting  that  the  rock,  as  a  rule, 
would  show  an  average  increase  of  heat  down  to 
the  Carboniferous  system,  or  even  to  the  Devon- 
ian, yet  there  is  rock  enough  beyond  that  con- 
tains so  much  less  carbon,  as  to  show  such  a  de- 
crease of  heat  that  must  more  than  counteract 
all  the  increase  above.  Whether  we  follow  up 
the  old  hypothesis,  with  the  laws  regulating  heat 


26  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

by  conduction  or  chemical  action,  the  theory  is 
utterly  without  foundation.  The  late  Prof.  Nor- 
ton, of  the  California  State  Normal,  said  in  a 
lecture  at  Pacific  Grove,  in  1883,  "  Every  living 
geologist  that  I  know  of  in  the  world  will  admit, 
for  he  knows,  that  the  granite  was  a  sedimentary 
rock."  This  sentiment  of  his  speech  being  re- 
ported to  Le  Conte,  he  replied,  "  In  this  position 
Prof.  Norton  is  undoubtedly  right."  It  is  thus 
seen  that  -the  Plutonic  theory  in  our  text  books 
is  at  variance  with  modern  experiments,  and  is 
proved  to  be  utterly  false. 

9.  Volcanoes  and  geysers  were  formerly  sup- 
posed to  settle  the  question  in  favor  of  the  old 
theory.  The  phenomena  of  both  are  such  as  to 
strongly  argue  against  it.  Most  geysers  are 
known  to  be  caused  by  chemical  action  of  rock. 
We  instance  those  in  Hot  Spring  Valley,  Cal., 
near  Lassen  Buttes.  No  one,  having  noticed  the 
various  colored  mud-pots  and  mounds  of  pulpy 
rock  thrown  up  by  these  boiling  cauldrons,  can 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          27 

come  to  any  other  conclusion.  A  few  geysers 
may  be  exceptions,  having  been  caused  by  water 
trickling  over  heated  rock  in  proximity  to  vol- 
canoes. These  prove  nothing  as  to  the  center  of 
the  earth,  until  it  can  be  established  that  this 
body  of  lava  is  in  the  center  of  the  earth.  A 
multitude  of  facts  in  connection  with  volcanic  ac- 
tion demonstrate  that  lava  does  not  proceed  from 
a  common  center. 

A  few  we  will  here  give.  (1.)  Lava  varies  in 
color  according  to  the  color  of  the  stratified  rock 
found  in  the  vicinity.  Thus,  between  Reno  and 
Wadsworth,  Nevada,  may  be  seen  a  red  ledge  of 
sedimentary  rock.  Close  by  are  found  quantities 
of  red  lava,  being  the  same  shade  of  red  found 
in  the  sedimentary.  Pieces  of  rock  may  be  seen, 
one  side  showing  the  sedimentary  strata,  and  the 
other  partially  melted.  Lava  everywhere,  prob- 
ably, is  only  sedimentary  rock  melted.  (2.) 
Volcanic  disturbances  are  local,  which  they  could 
not  be  if  they  proceeded  from  a  common  center. 


28  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

(3.)  The  existence  of  great  quantities  of  ashes,  so 
light  as  to  float  on  the  surface  of  water,  argues 
the  consumption  of  some  burning  material,  as  of 
coal.  Nothing  of  this  would  exist  in  matter  that 
had  primarily  been  collected  in  liquid,  and  had 
ever  been  in  a  fused  state.  Something  must  have 
been  burning  to  produce  the  ashes.  (4.)  The 
fact  of  all  the  great  upheavals  of  plateaus  and 
mountains  having  been  this  side  the  Carbonifer- 
ous system  of  deposit,  where  the  burning  mate- 
rial, sufficient  to  produce  volcanic  effect,  was 
extracted  from  the  air  and  laid  down  as  rock, 
argues  in  favor  of  a  power  much  nearer  than 
force,  generated  from  a  primeval  sea  of  lava. 
Burning  coal  as  a  source  of  heat,  and  steam  as  a 
power,  are  ample  to  account  for  every  volcanic 
disturbance,  however  it  may  have  been  modified 
by  electric  forces. 

10.  Most  geologists  are  dissatisfied  with  the 
fire  theory,  and  are  looking  about  for  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  teaching  of  the  science.  Professor 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          29 

Norton  said,  "  We  are  upon  the  eve  of  a  perfect 
revolution  in  the  science  of  geology."  Agassiz 
said,  uThe  Plutonic  theory  loses  ground  as  soon 
as  brought  to  scientific  tests."  Again  he  uttered 
with  decided  emphasis,  "  If  the  center  of  our  earth 
were  molten  lava^  as  hot  as  represented,  a  crust 
of  rock  fifty  miles  thick  would  melt,  and,  in  the 
space  of  a  few  hours,  fall  into  the  great  sea." 

A  teacher  of  geology  in  one  of  our  large  col- 
leges, who  had  just  finished  a  lecture  upon  the 
Plutonic  theory,  said,  "  I  have  given  that  theory 
because  it  is  the  teaching  of  all  our  text-books  ; 
but  I  do  not  believe  it.  Many  facts  now  com-' 
ing  to  light  show  that  the  Water  theory  is  des- 
tined to  come  to  the  front." 

11.  The  fact  that  submarine  volcanoes  hap- 
pen, without  letting  the  ocean  into  the  great  sea  of 
lava,  shows  that  no  such  sea  is  there.  But  for 
the  money  and  reputation  invested  in  school  books 
upon  this  defunct  theory,  it  would  have  been, 
before  this,  consigned  to  the  Plutonic  hell  of  the 


30  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

Greeks,  from  whence,  it  is  more  than  probable,  it 
originated. 

12.  Many  admitted  facts  are  utterly  inconsis- 
tent with  this  theory.  We  will  stop  to  notice  but 
two. 

(1.)  It  is  a  generally  admitted  fact,  that  the  en- 
tire land  portions  of  the  explored  earth,  including 
Greenland  to  the  80th  parallel,  were  either  in  a 
tropical  or  semi-tropical  climate,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  sedimentary  rock,  up  to  and  far  into  the 
so-called  Alluvium  deposit,  and  even  to  the  his- 
toric age.  u  The  climate  of  England  was  warm- 
er than  any  now  known  on  the  earth."  Sir  Chas. 
Lyell  stated,  that  the  only  exceptions  breaking 
in  upon  this  uniformly  warm  climate  were  tem- 
porary changes  during  the  great  glacial  epochs. 
This  uniform  heat  could  not  result  from  the  pres- 
ent auxiliary  motion  of  the  earth,  nor  with  any 
good  reason  can  we  assert  that  the  internal  fires 
ever  modulated  the  surface  climate  so  much  as  one 
degree.  Scientists  are  a  unit  in  affirming  that,  for 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         31 

the  last  four  thousand  years,  there  has  been  no 
perceptible  influence  from  this  cause,  upon  our 
climate.  A  rupture  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  a 
change  of  pole  three  thousand  miles,  and  a  com- 
plete change  of  pole-pointing,  resulting  in  our  pres- 
ent alternating  seasons,  has  probably  happened 
within  the  "  historic  age,"  and  probably  within 
five  thousand  years.  This  could  not  be  upon  the 
Plutonic  basis.  Our  earth  could  not  part,  and 
swim  off  upon  a  globe  of  melted  lava. 

(2.)  Diatoms  are  now  known  to  have  existed, 
coequal  with  the  deposit  of  all  stratified  rock. 
This  is  a  well  verified  fact,  but  utterly  inconsist- 
ent with  the  Plutonic  theory.  Upon  this  theory, 
the  early  crust  of  Earth  must  have  remained  at 
a  white  heat.  Water  could  not  lie  upon  it  at  all. 
Hence,  both  deposits  in  water  and  animal  life 
would  be  out  of  the  question.  The  fact  of  both,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  well  established  fact  of  the  sedi- 
mentary nature  of  granite,  must  ever  brand  the 
theory  as  contradicting  the  plain  facts  of  nature. 


32  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

These  facts  equally  refute  the  more  modern  no- 
tion of  metamorphism  of  rock.  The  very  waves 
of  the  sea  unite  in  a  chorus  with  the  rocks,  "  The 
Plutonic  foundations  of  the  earth's  crust  exist  only 
in  the  imagination  of  man." 


SECTION  2. 

WE  WILL  STATE  THE  NEPTUNIAN  THEORY 
AS  A  HYPOTHESIS. 

1.  All  matter  was  created  at  once,  and  is  cor- 
relative. 

2.  In  its  primary  condition  it  was  in  cold  gas; 
diffused  in  equilibrium  in  that  portion  of  space 
now  occupied  with  systems  :  it  follows  that  grav- 
itation, heat,  form,  motion  and   power  would  in 
this  state  be  wanting. 

3.  A  power,  outside  of  created  matter,  must 
transform  this  substance  from  the  inertia   of  rest 
to  that  of  motion.  No  sooner  was  a  center  of  mat- 
ter gathered,    than    gravitation    acted    upon    all 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          33 

parts  of  the  universe.  The  centers  of  all  systems 
must  commence  at  the  same  time,  or  one  system 
would  tend  to  blend  with  another,  and  nature 
would  be  thrown  out  of  equilibrium.  The  entire 
period  of  gathering  must  have  been  with  rela- 
tive exactness.  It  follows  that,  at  the  beginning 
of  motion,  all  matter  must  be  put  in  motion.  Such 
gases  as  were  destined  to  constitute  the  sun  would 
move  directly  for  it ;  and  such  gases  as  were  des- 
tined for  globes  would  move  in  a  circle  around 
the  center.  Such  order  must  have  formed  the 
poetic  choir  of  suns,  "  When  the  morning  stars 
sang  together." 

4.  The    shaping    of    systems,    sending   forth 
light,  heat,  gravitation    and   power,  may  well  be 
called  the   first  cosmological   division  of  matter. 
This  included  the  heavens,  and  prospective  plan- 
ets, as  yet  without  form,  and  floating  in  a  ring  of 
chaotic  gases. 

5.  At   the  close  of  this  division,  our  sun  had 
been  gathered  out  of  a  field   of  space,  extending 


34  THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

each  way  more  than  twenty  trillion  of  miles. 
If  these  light  gases  had  moved  in  a  straight  line 
at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles  per  hour,  it  would 
take  ninety  million  of  our  years  to  reach  the  cen- 
ter. Poetically  speaking,  there  existed  a  condi- 
tion of  matter  when  force,  light,  gravitation,  mo- 
tion and  form  were  sleeping  in  the  inertia  of  rest. 
This  was  followed  by  a  period  of  motion  to  and 
about  a  central  sun.  Geologically  speaking,  the 
earth,  as  yet,  had  no  form.  The  matter  that 
would  form  planets  was  all  floating  in  a  revolving 
ring  about  the  sun. 

The  objective  view  of  this  ring,  with  reference 
to  the  gathered  center,  would  be  a  solar  firma- 
ment. The  fluids  above  had  not  yet  been  separat- 
ed from  fluids  below,  hence  the  firmanent  was 
continuous.  Earth,  without  form,  was  yet  sleep- 
ing in  chaos.  It  awoke  in  form  when  a  second 
division  of  matter,  with  no  measured  duration  as 
yet,  had  been  accomplished. 

6.     A  vast  field  of  hydrogen  united  with  its 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         35 

equivalent  of  oxygen  ;  and,  in  super-heated  steam, 
evolved  out  into  space,  and  took  shape  as  a  globe. 
These  divisions  antedate  geologic  time.  Geology 
must  begin  with  sedimentary  rock.  The  globe  of 
steam  must  liquify  and  pass  back  to  the  ring,  and 
through  it  toward  the  sun.  In  doing  so,  it  took 
an  atmosphere  with  it  that  shows  the  source  of 
all  our  rock.  When  taking  its  true  orbit  about 
the  sun,  it  was  a  vast  globe  of  cold  water,  hold- 
ing, by  gravitation,  a  dense  atmosphere  in  its  em- 
brace, rich  in  material  for  submarine  rock.  For 
a  while  the  deposits  were  very  rapid,  and  a  great 
quantity  of  pulp  of  rock  was  formed,  before  any 
hardening  took  place.  This  accounts  for  the  un- 
stratified  condition  of  granite.  All  the  first  rocks 
would  be  submarine,  hidden  deep  in  the  sea. 
Nearly  eighty  miles  depth  of  deposits  took  place 
before  dry  land  could  appear. 

7.  Contrasts  marked  the  beginning  and  close 
of  the  first  two  divisions.  If  we  follow  this  or- 
der in  this  third  division,  we  must  wait  until 


36  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

the  Devonian  forests  showed  the  renewed  touch 
of  the  creative  hand,  giving  life  in  contrast  to  in- 
organic matter,  with  which  the  globe  started  into 
form,  and  took  its  position  as  a  planet  of  our 
system.  Such  is  the  Neptunian  theory  in  part, 
touching  first  causes  in  cosmology. 


SECTION  3. 

THE    WELL   ESTABLISHED    FACT   OF   SCIENCE 
LOOK  TOWARD,  AND  DEFEND  THIS  THEORY. 

1.  In  the   relative  quantities  of  sedimentary 
and  lava  rock.     By    far  the    greater  portion    of 
rock  of  all  lands  is  sedimentary.     Lava  is  the  ex- 
ception.    If  the  source  of  supply  is  an   internal 
sea,  7,880  miles  in  diameter,  the  reverse  of  this 
would  most  likely  be  true. 

2.  In  the  relative  order  of   the  two   kinds  of 
rock.    Except  in  very  restricted    locations,  sedi- 
mentary rock  is  at  the  bottom,  in  the  middle,  and 
at  the  top  of  the   earth's  crust.     Lava  has  never 


SUPPORTED   BY   FACTS    OF   SCIENCE.         37 


been  found  as  an  integral  part  of  the  supposed 
bottom  rock. 

3.  The  constituents  of  all  rock  indicate  the 
water  theory.  All  rock  is  known  to  be  a  com- 
bination of  gases.  The  coal  is  admitted  to  have 
been  gathered  from  the  air,  through  the  agency 
of  vegetation.  There  are  three  ways  gases  may 
be  combined  into  rock : 

(1.)  Through  the  agency  of  water  alone.  Such 
was  the  primitive  granite  ;  and  such  are  the  mod- 
ern stalactites. 

(2.)  Through  the  agency  of  diatoms  living 
in  the  water.  These  creatures  are  absorbents. 
They  absorb  the  minerals  of  the  water,  and  form 
stone.  Such  are  lime,  chalk  and  coral. 

(3.)  They  may  be  absorbed  into  vegetation,  and 
then  hidden  away  in  the  waters,  until  changed 
into  coal. 

(4.)  Sandstone  and  conglomerate  are  formed 
from  eroded  material  of  other  rocks. 

(5*.)  The  melting  of  sedimentary  rock  in  prox- 


38  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

imity  to  burning  beds  of  coal  has  formed  the 
lava. 

(6.)  Chimneys  of  rock  crossing  the  lower 
strata,  as  of  quartz  and  granite,  are  now  known 
to  be  of  water  deposit.  The  word  dyke  is  improp- 
erly applied  to  them.  These  circumstances  all 
point  to  a  center  of  water. 

4.  The  question  with  many  will  arise,  How 
can  rock  rest  upon  water  ?  The  answer  is,  Upon 
the  principle  of  the  compressibility  of  liquids. 
Water  compresses  a  twentieth  part  in  a  thous- 
and atmospheres.  Thirty-three  feet  of  water  is 
equal  to  one  atmosphere.  Thirty-three  thousand 
feet  would  compress  one-twentieth  part.  We  have 
a  geometrical  series,  with  a  ratio  of  1.05.  In  79£ 
miles  we  have  twelve  and  three-fourths  terms.  The 
sum  of  the  series  will  equal  19.127,  calling  33,000 
feet  one,  without  compressibility.  Now  as  the  aver- 
age rock,  under  salt  water,  weighs  only  one  and 
a  half  times  as  much  as  water,  we  have  to  multi- 
ply twelve  and  three-fourths  by  one  and  a  half 
to  get  its  relative  weight.  This  we  find  to  be 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         39 

19,125.  At  79J  miles  in  salt  water,  the  weight 
of  water  equals  rock  of  the  same  thickness.  As 
rock  displaces  only  its  bulk  of  water,  it  will  swim 
like  an  egg  in  strong  lye  at  this  depth. 

5.  The  explorations  which  have  been  made 
of  the  Atlantic  ocean  go  to  sustain  the  Neptunian 
theory. 

(1.)  They  think  that  they  have  established 
the  fact  that  we  had  a  connected  land  hemisphere, 
and  a  hemisphere  of  water.  Lieutenant  Maury 
made  such  extensive  explorations  of  its  contour 
and  bed,  as  to  well  nigh  demonstrate  the  above 
position.  His  report  is,  that  the  trough-like  ap- 
pearance of  its  bed,  the  corresponding  walls  on 
either  side,  being  nearly  perpendicular,  showed 
that  the  continents  were  once  together.  On 
either  side  of  the  Atlantic  the  sounding  line 
showed  a  gradual  deepening  of  water  for  about 
two  hundred  miles  from  shore,  when  suddenly  the 
depth  became  too  great  for  measurement.  This 
only  confirms  what  Guizot  wrote  upon  the  same 
subject  over  fifty  years  ago. 


40  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

In  a  small  treatise  he  endeavored  to  prove  that 
the  continent  showed  a  rent  hemisphere  of  land, 
once  altogether.  That  it  had  been  rent  asunder 
by  some  great  convulsion  of  nature,  and  by  water 
carried  away  from  Africa  and  Europe,  with  which 
North  and  South  America  were  formerly  con- 
nected. His  theory  was,  that  continents  and  is- 
lands are  but  floating  remnants  of  a  once  con- 
nected hemisphere. 

(2.)  Such  a  rupture  could  only  be  maintained 
on  the  hypothesis  of  a  center  of  water.  Should 
the  earth  open  its  crust,  letting  the  ocean  into  its 
interior  of  melted  lava,  it  would  resemble  a 
bomb. 

6.  We  shall,  therefore,  assume  that  we  had  a 
land  hemisphere,  and  that  the  north  pole  was  in 
the  center,  and  pointed  directly  to  the  sun  through- 
out its  entire  orbit.  This  would  involve  the  fact 
that  the  south  half  of  the  globe  was  in  darkness, 
and  locked  in  ice,  as  a  great  Antartic  sea. 

(1.)  We  argue  this  from  the  widely  extended 


SUPPORTED    BY    TACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          41 

remains  of  the  polyp-builders.  This  animalcule 
inhabits  only  warm  waters.  His  remains  are 
found  widely  distributed  in  every  zone  from  the 
Lower  Silurian  up.  Iowa  and  Minnesota  show 
as  nice  coral  in  their  strata  as  is  now  found  in  the 
torrid  seas. 

(2.)  From  the  widely  scattered  remains  of 
tropical  shells.  They  conclusively  show  that  a 
warm  ocean  once  covered  the  continents.  Sir 
Chas.  Lyell  mentions  the  tropical  nature  of  the 
shells  about  England  and  Labrador,  and  that 
"They  indicate  a  very  warm  climate,  more  uni- 
formly warm  than  any  now  existing  on  the 
Earth/' 

(3.)  From  the  remains  of  saurians ;  such  as 
the  icthyosaurus,  which,  like  the  crocodile  of  the 
Ganges,  is  found  only  in  warm  waters.  Darwin 
saw  one  in  the  bank  of  the  La  Plata.  No  land 
is  without  their  remains. 

(4.)  From  the  widely  spread  coal  beds  of 
Earth.  Nothing  in  geology  is  better  established, 


42  THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

than  that  this  is  the  product  of  tropical  forests. 
All  countries  boast  of  their  coal  veins.  Anthra- 
cite coal  is  often  found  in  the  frozen  rocks  of 
Greenland.  A  vein  of  the  best  coal,  ten  feet 
thick,  was  found  in  Nova  Zembla,  now  covered 
with  ice.  Good  coal  is  also  found  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  Alaska.  A  genial  climate  once  cov- 
ered these  places. 

(5.)  From  the  remains  of  tropical  animals. 
The  evidence  is  conclusive,  that  gigantic  ele- 
phants in  countless  herds  once  roamed  the  arctic 
regions  of  Siberia.  His  remains  have  been  found 
in  all  lands,  except  the  Scandinavian  peninsula. 
The  mastodon  was  his  near  neighbor,  and  his 
bones  are  generally  found  in  the  same  regions. 
These  animals  depended  on  grass  for  subsistence. 
They  could  not  endure  a  cold  winter,  nor  live 
where  snow  lies  on  the  ground  for  even  a  short 
time.  We  now  find  their  remains  where  snow 
now  lies  from  four  to  eight  months  in  a  year, 
and  from  two  to  twenty  feet  deep.  From  the 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          43 

region  of  Russian  Siberia  alone,  more  than  eighty 
thousand  pounds  of  their  ivory  have  been  sold  in 
a  single  year.  Whence,  then,  this  warm  climate, 
so  uniform  and  general  ?  It  cannot  be  accounted 
for  on  internal  heat.  Heat,  sufficient  to  warm  an 
arctic  atmosphere,  if  coming  from  the  ground, 
would  destroy  all  animal  life,  either  of  water  or 
land.  Geologists  agree  that  it  has  not  been  af- 
fected so  much  as  one  degree  for  the  last  four 
thousand  years.  But  we  have  positive  proof  that 
these  animals  existed  down  to  the  period  of  hu- 
man existence.  They  probably  have  not  been  ex- 
terminated five  thousand  years.  Internal  heat 
cuts  no  figure  in  their  existence.  Only  one  hy- 
pothesis accounts  for  these  tropical  phenomena, 
viz,  a  land  hemisphere,  with  pole  in  the  center, 
pointing  directly  to  the  sun. 

(6.)  The  sudden  change  of  climate  in  some 
past  time  argues  a  rapid  change  in  the  axillary 
motion  of  the  earth,  preceded  by  a  general  rup- 
ture of  the  earth's  crust.  It  was  so  sudden,  that 


44  THE    NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

animals  were  locked  up  in  arctic  ice,  and  have 
been  preserved  to  our  day,  with  flesh  entire. 
(See  the  word  Mammoth,  W.  Dictionary.)  The 
change  of  pole  must  have  been  very  sudden,  or 
animals,  slain  by  the  convulsion,  would  have 
decayed  at  once. 

(7.)  The  widely  spread  tropical  flowers  and 
fruits  sustain  this  theory.  The  palm  tree  flour- 
ished in  Europe  and  Central  Asia  ;  also  in  the 
northern  part  of  Xorth  America.  The  magno- 
lia blossomed  at  least  80  degrees  north.  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  claims  that  the  earlier  vegetation 
a  generally  tropical.  Grass  evidently  flour- 
ished in  all  lands,  the  year  round. 

7.  The  nature  and  condition  of  the  early 
rock  attest  the  water  theory.  Had  the  crust 
begun  upon  a  ball  of  lava,  at  a  white  heat,  the 
ocean,  readily  boiling,  would  "be  thrown  into 
the  air,  where  it  would  be  condensed,  and  by 
gravitation  thrown  back  upon  the  thin  crust. 
This  would  often  give  way,  and  the  whole  vol- 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         45 

time  would  enter  the  interior  and  explode  the 
entire  crust  into  atoms.  In  such  case  we  should 
expect  to  find  the  under  rock  a  broken  mass  of 
displaced  lava.  But  we  find  the  granite  to  have 
been  so  calmly  deposited  in  water,  and  it  retains 
its  place  so  well,  that  we  split  it  with  the  rift 
of  sugar  pine.  Geologists  estimate  the  earth's 
crust  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  thick. 
Upon  the  Neptunian  theory  we  at  least  have 
seventy-five  miles  without  a  particle  of  lava,  or 
so  much  as  the  scratch  of  an  iceberg.  The  early 
geologies  spoke  of  dykes  of  lava,  injected  into 
granite.  The  furnace  shows  these  to  be  water 
seams.  No  well  attested  lava  has  ever  been 
found  there. 

8.  The  period  of  the  great  upheavals  sup- 
ports this  theory.  No  grand  mountains  reared 
their  lofty  heads  to  the  clouds,  until  this  side  the 
Carboniferous  system  of  deposits.  It  is  more 
probable  that  burning  coal  must  have  been  the 
cause  of  the  heat,  and  the  expansion  of  steam 


46  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

the  power,  that  rent  the  Earth's  crust ;  and  the 
eighty  miles  pressure  of  waters  "suddenly  liber- 
ated would  bring  up  the  granite,  with  all  under 
rock,  to  the  surface.  Lava  then  proceeds  from 
local  deposits  of  melted  rock,  that  had  been 
stratified.  If  it  came  from  a  common  center  of 
a  primary  melted  mass,  there  would  be  no  occa- 
sion for  ashes.  The  abundance  of  these  ashes 
shows  the  consumption  of  some  burning  material, 
as  of  coal.  The  very  witnesses  which  the  Plu- 
tonic believers  have  placed  upon  the  stand  prove 
quite  the  reverse  of  their  theory. 

9.  Facts    show    that   the    substance    of    all 
mountain  chains  was  once  deposited  in  the  sea. 
Baron  VonHumboldt  remarked,  "  Upon  the  tall- 
est mountains  yet   reached  by    the  footsteps  of 
man  you  may  witness  the  ancient  sea  bottom." 
Conglomerate  shells    with    sand,  hardened    into 
rock  in  the  ancient  seas,  are  now  found   in  all 
lands  thousands  of  feet  above  the  sea. 

10.  The  rise  and  depressions  of  the  Earth's 


SUPPORTED    BY    PACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          47 

crust  are  proofs  of  the  water  theory.  Lands 
having  large  rivers,  carrying  more  debris  or  silt 
into  the  ocean  than  the  weight  of  her  vegetation, 
decaying,  are  rising  ;  as  has  been  demonstrated 
in  North  and  South  America,  Europe,  Asia  and 
Africa.  The  terraces  left  attest  the  truth  of 
this  position. 

Lands  having  more  vegetation  or  ice  than  the 
weight  of  the  debris  carried  into  the  sea  are 
sinking.  Witness  Greenland  and  the  Pacific 
Isles.  But  these  islands  could  not  well  sink  in- 
to a  sea  of  burning  lava,  without  letting  in  the 
surrounding  ocean ;  in  which  case  the  entire 
crust  would  be  destroyed. 

11.  The  crowning  reason  for  believing  in  the 
Neptunian  theory  is  found  in  the  great  glacial 
drift  period.  The  Neptunian  hypothesis  of  the 
poles  of  the  Earth  is  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  ice  that  constituted  the  drift.  The  ancient 
equator  would  mark  the  .  bound  between  dark- 
ness and  light :  and  would  be  situated  so  as  to 


48  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

manufacture  icebergs  the  whole  length  of  this 
largest  circle. 

The  depressions  of  the  lowlands  beneath  the 
sea  are  accounted  for  in  the  great  upheavals. 
On  an  average,  rock  weighed  out  of  water  is 
one  and  two-thirds  times  as  much  as  when  weigh- 
ed under  water.  All  the  strata  of  mountains 
and  plateaus  lifted  from  beneath  the  waters 
weigh  one  and  two-thirds  times  what  they  did 
before  being  disturbed. 

Geologists  tell  us  that  the  Earth's  crust  was 
depressed  six  to  seven  thousand  feet.  This 
would  enable  the  ice  to  flow  over  the  surface, 
the  bergs  being  of  enormous  depth.  The  low- 
lands of  every  continent  have  been  thus  plowed. 
The  evidence  exists  in  every  valley  and  far  up 
the  sides  of  all  mountains.  This  evidence  is  by 
no  means  confined  to  scratches  on  the  rock,  but 
the  water-washed  gravel  and  polished  pebbles 
equally  attest  its  action.  You  can  hardly  sink 
a  shaft  in  valley  or  hill  without  encountering 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         49 

them.  With  the  present  inclination  of  the  Earth's 
pole  to  the  elliptic  no  such  quantity  of  ice  can 
possibly  occur.  No  iceberg  has  ever  yet  been 
seen  in  tropical  waters.  There  never  yet  has 
been  enough  at  one  time  within  historic  note, 
to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  Gulf  Stream 
about  Norway  and  Iceland. 

How  different  the  ancient  drift !  Then  the 
ice  penetrated  all  open  seas,  caused  by  submer- 
gence. It  plowed  alike  the  Brazilian  moun- 
tains, the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  the  Appalachian. 
It  chilled  the  seas  to  the  very  center  of  the  sub- 
merged hemisphere  ;  and  England  witnessed  the 
dwelling  of  the  reindeer  in  her  borders,  while  it 
lasted.  According  to  Sir  Chas.  Lyell,  the  tem- 
perature sank  from  the  uniformity  of  our  in- 
tensely warm  climate  to  the  chilliness  of  melt- 
ing ice.  The  cold  was  now  as  uniform  as  the 
heat  had  before  been  constant.  The  north  pole, 
pointing  directly  to  the  sun,  would  bring  the 
whole  land  hemisphere  within  perpetual  sun- 
shine ;  and  consequently,  when  above  the  sea, 


50  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

would  be  in  a  tropical  or  semi-tropical  zone  to 
the  very  edge.  This  climate  would  continue 
as  long  as  the  land  could  hold  back  the  ice, 
which  had  been  accumulated  at  the  equator. 
But  no  sooner  did  the  lowlands  become  sub- 
merged, than  the  ice  would  change  the  climate, 
wherever  it  could  in  large  quantities  accumulate. 
As  it  plowed  every  river,  plain,  and  gulch,  the 
fauna,  adapted  to  the  former  climate,  would 
naturally  lose  their  existence.  Such  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  drift.  Ninety-seven  per  cent,  of  all 
land  animals  died.  By  the  slow  process  of  dis- 
integration of  the  mountains,  the  hemisphere  was 
again  raised,  and  its  former  beautiful  climate 
restored. 

SECTION  4. 
How  WAS  SUCH  A  WORLD  ADAPTED  TO  MAN  OR 

STRICTLY  SPEAKING,  MAN  TO  SUCH  A  WORLD? 

1.  The  even  climate  of  such  a  world  would 
tend  to  his  longevity,  and  be  most  genial  to  his 
feelings. 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.         51 

Man's  nature  calls  for  an  even  climate.  Now 
by  art  he  tries  to  even  up  the  climate  of  the 
year. 

(1.)  Less  than  two-thirds  of  the  lighted  hem- 
isphere could  have  been  covered  with  dry  land. 
Many  bodies  of  water  are  known  to  have  been 
included  within  the  areas  of  land.  The  pole, 
pointing  directly  toward  the  sun,  must  have  been 
near  Gibraltar.  Allowing  that  land  extended 
in  every  direction,  four  thousand  miles  or  more, 
we  should  then  have  an  open  sea  of  from  fifteen 
hundred  to  two  thousand  miles,  intervening  be- 
tween the  edge  of  the  hemisphere  of  land,  or 
perhaps  more  properly,  the  quartosphere  of  land, 
and  the  region  of  perpetual  ice. 

(2.)  On  the  sunny  side  of  such  a  globe,  being 
at  first  entirely  water,  a  rapid  evaporation  must 
have  taken  place ;  and  most,  nearest  the  north 
pole.  This  would  give  rise  to  currents,  both  of 
air  and  water,  to  flow  toward  it,  as  a  source  of 
supply.  Counter  currents  of  both  would  follow. 


52  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

Currents  of  either  starting  near  the  equator 
would  be  cold  and  possess  a  motion  greater  than 
the  earth,  a  few  degrees  toward  the  pole.  This 
would  send  both  towards  the  northeast,  until 
meeting  the  return  currents  of  wind,  which 
would  cause  variable  winds  ;  but  a  most  genial 
climate  must  have  surrounded  the  earth,  at  least 
forty  degrees  wide. 

(3.)  Such  a  climate,  with  such  facilities  for 
evaporation,  would  provide  the  way  for  perpetual 
harvest.  The  open  sea  to  the  edge  must  have 
been  constantly  filled  with  floating  ice.  Cold 
breezes,  often  laden  with  thick  fog,  would  float  in 
over  the  edge  of  the  land.  This  may  account 
for  the  long  hair  which  covered  the  mammoth 
elephant  of  Siberia  and  California.  No  winds 
are  more  penetrating  than  those  coming  from 
large  bodies  of  melting  ice  ;  yet  under  a  perpetual 
sunshine  the  vegetation  must  have  been  abun- 
dant. 

2.     We  add  by  way  of  recapitulation  : 


SUPPORTED    BY    FACTS    OF    SCIENCE.          53 

(1.)  That  everywhere,  and  with  each  new 
discovery  in  science,  the  evidence  is  accumulat- 
ing that  our  globe  is  essentially  an  immense  ball 
of  cold  water,  with  a  crust  of  earth  covering  the 
under  waters  as  with  a  stone  ;  while  a  portion 
of  water  above  is  held  in  the  earth's  lap. 

(2.)  Until  recently,  the  continents  and  islands 
were  together  in  one  vast  body,  with  the  axil- 
lary center  pointing  to  the  sun. 

(3.)  That  fragments  of  the  broken  hemis- 
phere have  been  spread  out  upon  the  seas,  often 
standing  with  just  their  tops  out  of  water  as 
islands. 

(4.)  Inasmuch  as  this  Earth  is  a  magnet,  the 
deposit  about  the  pole  was  of  the  nature  of  a 
load-stone.  This  existed  as  a  mountain,  which 
by  the  force  of  the  waters  was  bodily  removed 
to  the  present  north,  nearly  three  thousand 
miles.  It  was  thus  we  had  a  change  of  times 
and  seasons. 

(5.)     That  the  alternation  of  day  and  night, 


54  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY. 

heat  and  cold,  summer  and  winter,  seed-time  and 
harvest,  are  results  following  this  great  change 
in  the  Earth's  polarity. 

(6.)  That  the  existence  of  the  rainbow, 
caused  by  the  declination  of  the  sun  toward  the 
horizon  in  the  Earth's  present  motion,  is  a  re- 
minder of  what  is,  and  will  remain  to  be,  in  con- 
trast to  what  was,  and  would  have  been,  until 
the  end  of  time,  had  no  cause  occurred  mak- 
ing it  necessary  for  this  radical  change. 

Earth's  climate  was  changed, 

(a)  By  changing  the  magnetic  currents  of 
Earth,  in  removing  the  pole  locally  three  thous- 
and miles  away. 

(6)  By  withdrawing  the  attraction  the  for- 
mer pole  had  for  the  sun,  and  pointing  it  to  an 
empty  place  in  the  north,  now  one  degree  and 
a  half  from  Polaris. 

(c)  By  inclining  the  Earth's  pole  twenty- 
three  and  a  half  degrees  to  the  ecliptic.  "  He 
changeth  times  and  seasons." 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  NEPTUNIAN    THEORY  OF  CREATION  WAS 

FIRST  BROUGHT  TO  LlGIIT  IN  THE 

BOOK  OF  JOB. 

1.  LIKE  Homer,  who  dated  his  poem  in  the 
rising  of  the  star  Sirius,  so  Job  dated  his  book 
in  the  Pleiades,  while  the  sun  was  gaining  his 
vernal  equinox  in  the  star  Alcyone  of  this  constel- 
lation. The  Septuagint  speaks  of  Job's  age  at 
the  commencement  of  his  trial  as  being  one  hun- 
dred years.  By  the  closing  statement  appended 
to  his  book,  we  learn  that  he  lived  after  his  res- 
toration one  hundred  and  forty  years.  This 
makes  his  age  two  hundred  and  forty  at  his 
death.  Alcyone  marks  by  precession  of  the 
equinoxes  2100  years  B.  C.  The  great  period 
of  his  longevity  indicates  a  time  antedating 
Abraham's  day  by  more  than  two  hundred 
years. 


56  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

2.  This  book  is  an  epi-dramatic  Oratorio  of 
human  history.  It  is  epic,  in  that  it  gives  the 
history  of  a  real  life  ;  dramatic,  in  that  it  drama- 
tizes human  history,  by  the  inspirations  of  these 
actors,  with  the  religious  intuitions  of  all  ages. 
The  poem  as  a  whole  shows  the  contending  forces 
that  develop  character  ;  the  struggle  of  man's 
redeemed  nature  against  the  tendencies  of  a  se- 
ries of  degenerate  ages,  as  far  down  as  the  full 
triumph  of  Christ's  reign  ;  followed  by  the  long 
prosperity  that  awaits  the  Church.  It  also  sets 
forth  the  longings  of  the  human  intellect  for  a 
knowledge  of  first  causes  ;  and  its  crowning  suc- 
cess when  Nature  is  studied  in  connection  with 
the  revelations  of  God's  Word.  The  Book  of 
Job  was  evidently  the  only  Scripture  that  the 
world  had  for  at  least  eight  hundred  years.  The 
introduction  shows  Job  to  have  been  a  person 
adapted  to  great  reverses  of  fortune,  rich,  pious, 
prosperous,  happy,  and  respected.  Two  spirits, 
either  of  which  may  take  form,  but  neither  being 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF   JOB.       57 

dependent  on  form  or  locality,  are  present  in 
their  religious  gatherings  as  they  have  ever  been 
in  ours.  That  objective  figures  come  before  our 
imaginations  in  reading  this  part  of  the  poem, 
only  shows  the  high  character  of  the  production. 

3.  The  first  question  between  God  and  Satan 
is  that  hackneyed  one  of  all  history,  viz :  Is  piety 
a  selfish  ebullition  of  the  human  heart  or  a  divine- 
ly planted  principle  ?     Satan  takes  the  first  state- 
ment, God  the  latter     Satan  affirms  that  a  sudden 
reverse  of  fortune  will  change  the  aspect  of  Job's 
piety,  and  he  will  then  curse  God  to  his  face. 
Great  principles    are    best  tested    by    suffering. 
Nor  is  it  necessary  that  every  one  should  suffer  in 
the  same  direction  to  show  forth  the  same.     The 
world  is  full  of  delegated  suffering ;  the  few  for 
the  many,  and  sometimes  one  for  all.     Job  is  the 
right  man  in  wealth,  station,  influence,  and  habits 
of  mind  to  personify  piety  in  its  relation  to  the 
world's  progress. 

4.  The  Orient  is  the  place,  and  that  period  of 


58  THE    NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

the  world  the  time,  for  the  rich  figures  of  speech 
found  in  the  two  scenes  of  this  unparalleled  pro- 
duction. Of  the  two  forces  meeting  us  in  life,  in- 
viting our  attention  and  co-operation,  one  must 
and  but  one  can,  at  the  same  time,  receive  our 
homage.  The  one  inclines  you  to  and  gives  you 
credit  for  all  good ;  the  other  inclines  you  from 
and  gives  you  no  credit  for  any  good.  The 
princely  man  of  the  Orient  is  suddenly  confronted 
with  absolute  bankruptcy  and  bereavement  of  all 
his  children,  without  the  chance  of  speaking  the 
parting  good-bye.  Satan  expected  the  question 
settled  in  his  favor,  by  a  sudden  outburst  of  pas- 
sion, in  vindictive  hate  to  God.  But  listen! 
"  Naked  came  I  out  of  my  mother's  womb  (earth), 
and  naked  shall  I  return  thither.  The  Lord  gave, 
and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away  ;  blessed  be  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  The  first  scene  is  ended  with 
Satan  completely  foiled.  But,  some  one  might 
say,  the  question  only  covered  Job's  outward 
prosperity.  True,  his  wife  is  left  to  him,  but  she 
is  a  part  of  himself. 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       59 

5.  Again  the  sons  of  God  are  together  in  wor- 
ship.    Satan  begs  leave  to  amend  his  indictment 
against  piety.     "Touch  his  bone  and  his   flesh 
and  he  will  curse  thee."    Job  is  smitten  in  a  man- 
ner calculated  to  break  down  his  patience.     The 
patience  of  his  wife  having  become  exhausted, 
she  is  influenced  to  give  her  vindictive  advice  in 
the  line  of    Satan's   desires,    u  Curse  God,    and 
die."     "Thou    speakest    as    a    foolish    woman. 
What !    shall    we  receive  good  at  the    hand    of 
God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil  ?  " 

6.  The  prologue  of   scene  second  ends  with 
Satan  confounded.     The  incoming  circumstances 
show  God's  present  proposition  to  be  that  true 
piety  will  not  only  endure,  without  tarnish,  what 
Satan  in  his  ill  will  has  proposed,  but  it  will  sur- 
vive and  develop  in  strength  in  the  ages  to  come, 
until  it  shall  triumph  over  every  foe.     To  refute 
all  satanic    charges  to   which  history    will  give 
rise,  God  proposes  to  try  it  in  this  person,  under 
the  leading  intuitions  governing  the  masses  of  all 


60  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

ages,  past  and  to  come.  Three  supposed  but  mis- 
taken friends  hear  of  Job's  calamity,  and  resolve 
to  condole  his  misery.  These  are  ranked  within 
the  family  of  God's  sons.  These  men  are  kings 
in  their  time,  and  are  supposed  to  be  entitled  to 
a  hearing.  Their  mistakes  will  make  them  really 
Job's  enemies.  Such  are  the  coadjutors  that 
Satan  is  about  to  have  brought  to  his  aid.  They 
find  Job  in  keen  anguish  of  body,  incapable  of 
recognizing  his  friends. 

7.  These  persons  are  all  representative  char- 
acters, whose  intuitions  will  partake  of  the  nature 
of  the  epochs  of  human  history,  through  which 
the  prophet  Job  is  about  to  be  taken.     Job  per- 
sonifies piety ;  Eliphaz,  reverence    in   tradition  ; 
Bildad,  special  Providence  as  a  rule  of  action  ; 
Zophar,  ignorance,  the  mother  of  devotion.     Be- 
ginning with  the  fall  of  man,  each  epoch  of  human 
history  is  to  stamp  the  prevailing  religious  intui- 
tions of  the  masses  upon  these  men. 

8.  Piety  must  be  tried  under  all.     Until  the 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       61 

enlightened  age  of  the  world  is  reached,  piety 
will  have  little  to  cling  to  but  faith  in  God,  and 
that  in  the  face  of  appearances.  Such  is  the 
drama  about  to  be  enacted.  Six  grand  epochs  of 
historic  time  must  be  passed  to  reach  even  the 
present  time.  (1.)  Deism  of  the  antediluvian 
world.  (2.)  Special  Providence  as  a  rule  of 
action  following  the  flood,  and  out  of  which  grew 
the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel.  (3.)  He 
was  left  alone  through  materialistic  worship  in 
idolatry,  as  in  Abraham's  time.  (4.)  He  was 
confronted  by  a  superstitious  looking-behind,  as 
in  Persia's  time.  (5.)  Tempted  with  an  abnor- 
mal ambition,  as  in  Alexander's  time.  (6.)  He 
must  be  surrounded  by  the  ruling  necessities  of 
commercial  selfishness  inaugurated  by  Rome,  and 
transmitted  by  circumstantial  links  in  the  progress 
of  civilization  to  our  own  time. 

9.  Human  history  in  the  drama  starts  in  with 
a  wail.  Job,  with  the  intuitions  of  a  deist,  be- 
wails his  very  existence.  As  he  looks  to  the  fu- 


62  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

ture  there  is  not  one  ray  of  hope.  "  Thou  (God) 
shalt  search  for  me  in  the  morning  but  I  shall  not 
be.  He  that  goeth  down  to  the  grave  shall  come 
up  no  more." 

Where  now  is  that  oft  repeated  declaration  of 
Satan,  that  piety,  at  best,  is  only  a  selfish  looking 
forward  to  rewards  in  the  future  ?  The  piety  of 
Job  survives  this  terrible  ordeal.  The  blinding 
intellectual  fog  of  deism  could  not  lose  his  point 
of  compass. 

Creeds  may  be  good  as  sign-boards  directing 
the  traveler,  but  they  go  but  a  little  ways  in  de- 
termining the  action  of  the  truly  pious.  As  he 
approaches  the  flood  he  beholds  the  "  numbering 
of  man's  days  on  the  earth."  And,  as  the  reality 
bursts  upon  his  vision,  he  experiences  a  perfect 
revolution  of  intuition.  All  is  special  Providence 
now. 

10.  The  flood  is  passed  in  chapter  eight,  and 
"  man's  days  become  as  a  shadow."  The  law  of 
God's  natural  Providence,  in  cause  and  effect, 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       63 

is  by  Job  and  his  friends  completely  ignored. 
His  own  condition  will  look  him  in  the  face  with 
terrible  effect,  asking  an  explanation.  To  such 
an  ordeal,  with  Bildad  framing  an  enthusiastic 
argument  upon  the  evidences  of  special  Provi- 
dence in  the  affliction,  was  Job  brought.  He 
can  logically  prove  Job  to  be  one  of  the  worst  of 
men.  uDoth  God  pervert  judgment?  "  To  Job 
he  saith,  "  If  thou  wast  pure  and  upright,  surely 
now  he  would  awake  for  thee."  Job  with  his 
intuitions  cannot  see  why  the  argument  is  not 
sound.  "  I  know  it  is  so  of  a  truth."  To  work 
thus  upon  the  nerves  of  a  sick  man,  who  has  been 
shut  off  from  comprehensive  views  of  God's  gen- 
eral Providence  in  law,  is  well  calculated  to  break 
him  down  in  impatience  toward  God.  But  Job 
replies,  "  If  I  say  I  am  perfect  it  shall  also  prove 
me  perverse.  Though  I  were  perfect,  yet  would 
I  not  know  my  soul ;  neither  is  there  any  days- 
man betwixt  us,  that  he  should  lay  his  hand  up- 
on us  both."  Zophar  replied,  "Know  therefore 


64  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

that  God  exacteth  of  thee  less  than  thine  iniq- 
uity deserveth."  Job  replied,  "I  could  speak 
as  you  do  if  I  were  in  your  stead."  "Though 
he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him."  Job  claims 
an  honest  integrity  of  purpose,  though  denying 
perfection  in  attainment. 

10.  For  this  noble  stand  he  is  rewarded  on 
the  spot  with  a  prophetic  view  of  what  forms  the 
first  chapter  in  the  "  Little  Book  "  of  star-dates. 
Tracing  time  back  by  the  precession  of  the  equi- 
noxes to  where  the  sun  crossed  its  spring  equi- 
nox in  Orion's  belt,  he  saw  the  commencement 
of  man.  Tracing  the  same  line  forward  to  the 
end  of  our  race,  where  indeed  time  ends,  he 
saw  that  it  rested  in  Ash  or  the  Great  Bear 
(margin)  incorrectly  translated  Arcturus ;  new 
version,  Great  Bear. 

Looking  to  the  same  kind  of  date  of  his  own 
time,  he  saw  the  sun  crossing  the  Pleiades. 
Looking  at  the  full  inauguration  of  Christ's 
Kingdom  on  earth,  represented  by  the  termina- 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      65 

tion  of  Job's  own  sufferings,  he  saw  the  time 
measured  in  the  Summer  Solstitial  colure  going 
from  under  the  Altar.  "  Thou  madest  Ash,  Ori- 
on and  the  Pleiades,  and  the  chambers  of  the 
south.*'  Here  commences  the  "Little  Book,"  al- 
uded  to  so  often  in  prophecy,  with  four  of  the 
most  important  dates  of  history,  but  sealed  upon 
the  back  part  until  the  opening  of  the  same  by 
the  "  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah"  to  his  serv- 
ant John.  Here,  perhaps  all  unconscious  of 
their  bearings  on  future  history,  he  is  picturing 
in  the  heavens,  and  dating  by  means  of  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  the  long  periods,  revo- 
lutions, changes  and  triumphs  his  sufferings  were 
to  take  him,  followed  by  the  long  prosperity  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  latter  day. 

11.  Representing  the  reign  of  universal  idol- 
atry, and  consequent  ignorance  of  the  masses, 
and  preceding  the  anxious  inquiries  concerning 
immortality  by  Confucius,  Socrates  and  Plato, 
Zophar  is  prepared  to  fill  in  his  part  of  the  drama. 


66  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

The  question  of  the  resurrection  is  discussed 
in  the  light  of  nature,  in  Chap.  14.  He  is  com- 
pelled to  leave  it  as  an  open  question,  only  wish- 
ing that  it  might  be  true.  "  Oh  that  thou  would- 
est  hide  me  in  the  grave,  that  thou  wouldest 
appoint  me  a  set  time,  and  remember  me.''  He 
nears  the  time  of  the  general  expectation  of  Mes- 
siah's appearance  on  earth. 

He  closes  to  allow  Zophar,  the  representative 
of  those  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  their  tradition, 
to  speak  again.  This  is  found  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter. 

12.  From  the  sixteenth  to  the  nineteenth,  in- 
clusive, Job  personifies  Christ.  Hence  these 
chapters  are  Messianic.  "  They  have  gaped  up- 
on me  with  their  mouth,  they  have  smitten  me 
upon  the  cheek  reproachfully.  My  days  are  ex- 
tinct, the  graves  are  ready  for  me.  God  hath 
delivered  me  to  the  ungodly,  and  turned  me 
over  into  the  hands  of  the  wicked.  Are  there 
not  mockers  with  me  ?  For  thou  hast  hid  their 


PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       67 

heart  from  understanding."  Many  of  these  sen- 
tences are  quoted  into  the  twenty-second  psalm, 
recognized  by  all  commentators  to  be  Messianic. 
This  Special  Providence,  as  a  rule  to  depend  up- 
on, watched  Christ  on  the  cross  ;  it  triumphed 
over  the  fact  that  God  did  not  deliver  him. 

Here  it  is  in  prophecy :  "  The  snare  is  laid  for 
him  in  the  ground.  It  shall  devour  the  strength 
of  his  skin,  even  the  firstborn  of  death,  it  shall 
devour  his  strength.  His  confidence  shall  be 
rooted  out  of  his  tabernacle.  His  remembrance 
shall  perish  from  the  earth.  He  shall  be  driven 
from  light  into  darkness,  and  chased  out  of  the 
world.  He  shall  neither  have  son  or  nephew 
among  his  people."  Isaiah,  quoting  the  senti- 
timent,  asks,  u  Who  shall  declare  his  generation, 
for  his  life  was  taken  from  the  earth?" 

The  Messianic  voice  is  personified  from  the 
grave.  The  grave  speaks  the  facts  of  history. 
"  He  hath  put  my  brethren  far  from  me,  and  my 
acquaintance  are  verily  estranged  from  me.  My 


68  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

kinsfolks  have  failed,  and  my  familiar  friends 
have  forgotten  me.  They  whom  I  loved  are 
turned  against  me.  Why  do  you  persecute  me 
as  God?"  In  the  nineteenth  chapter  Job  has 
reached  the  resurrection.  How  changed  the 
voice  !  "  Oh,  that  my  words  were  now  written  ! 
Oh,  that  they  were  printed  in  a  book  !  That 
they  were  graven  with  an  iron  pen,  and  lead  in 
the  rock  forever." 

13.  "  For  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth, 
and  that  he  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day  upon 
the  earth.  And  though  after  my  skin  worms  de- 
stroy this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God." 
Ignorance  is  not  satisfied  with  the  report  u  that 
he  is  risen  from  the  dead."  "  The  triumph  of 
the  wicked  is  short.  Though  his  excellency 
mount  up  to  the  heavens,  yet  he  shall  perish  for- 
ever. He  shall  fly  away  as  a  dream."  The  days 
of  apostolic  teaching  and  suffering  passed,  Chris- 
tianity debauched  by  a  state  religion,  ignorance 
again  put  forth  as  a  dying  gasp,  a  few  platitudes 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      69 

in  defense  of  God  and  against  piety.  Chap.  20. 
Job  answered  by  referring  man's  conduct  in  life 
to  a  future  judgment.  Chap.  21.  Reverence  in 
tradition  exhorted  Piety  to  speedy  repentance. 
Chaps.  23  and  24.  Piety  is  searching  directly 
for  the  true  God. 

14.  Special  Providence,  ignoring  law,  boast- 
eth  of  his  secular  strength.  "  Is  there  any  num- 
bers of  his  armies?  "  Here  in  the  poem  civiliza- 
tion reached  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation.  Chap. 
26.  It  begins  in  the  line  of  science.  The  rocks 
begin  to  speak.  "  Dead  things  are  formed  from 
under  the  waters."  The  orbicular  motion  and 
the  present  pole-pointing  of  the  Earth,  according 
to  the  Copernican  system,  is  seen.  "  He  stretch- 
eth  out  the  north  over  the  empty  place,  and 
hangeth  the  Earth  upon  nothing."  How  exactly 
in  accordance  with  the  history  of  scientific  re- 
form, that  this  knowledge  should  begin  in  small 
fragments  of  truth.  A  glimpse  of  the  ancient 
pole-pointing  is  seen.  "  He  hath  compassed  the 


70  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

waters  with  bounds,  until  the  day  and  night  come 
to  an  end  " ;  or  until  the  end  of  light  begins  with 
darkness.  He  saw  the  great  "  change  of  times 
and  seasons "  caused  by  the  Noachian  flood. 
"  He  divideth  the  sea  with  his  power,  and  by 
his  understanding  he  smiteth  through  the  proud. 
Lo  these  are  parts  of  his  ways  ;  but  how  little  a 
portion  is  heard  of  him  !  but  the  thunder  of  his 
power  who  can  understand?" 

15.  Job  enters  upon  the  Reformation  in  sci- 
ence with  a  prophet's  view  of  the  desperate  ef- 
forts put  forth,  by  scientists  of  our  own  period, 
to  reach  first  causes  by  analytical  deduction  and 
hypothetical  reasoning  ;  and  this  unaided  by  any 
light  claiming  to  come  by  inspiration  of  God. 
His  harp  seemed  attuned  in  the  most  exquisite 
niceness  of  poetic  finish,  to  that  class  of  modern 
pretenders  who  talk  of  the  fullness  of  nature's 
laws,  while  they  disbelieve  in  the  existence  of  nat- 
ure's God.  He  opens  the  twenty-eighth  chapter 
with  certain  admissions,  as  to  points  of  knowledge 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       71 

obtainable  from  phenomena  of  nature,  followed 
by  questions  suggestive  of  the  paucity  of  all 
things  seen  to  unfold  a  true  and  full  cosmology. 
"  Surely  there  is  a  vein  for  the  silver,  and  a  place 
for  gold  where  they  fine  it.  Iron  is  taken  out  of 
the  earth,  and  brass  is  molten  out  of  the  stone." 
Now  beholding  the  futile  efforts  of  Naturalists  to 
reach  first  causes  he  exclaims,  "There  is  a  path 
which  no  fowl  knoweth,  and  which  the  vulture's 
eye  hath  not  seen.  The  lion's  whelps  have  not 
trodden  it,  nor  the  fierce  lion  passed  by  it.  He 
putteth  forth  his  hand  upon  the  rock  :  he  over- 
turneth  the  mountains  by  the  roots.  He  cutteth 
out  rivers  among  the  rocks,  and  his  eye  sees  ev- 
ery precious  thing."  This  and  more  is  freely 
conceded  as  yielding  a  grand  field  for  geological 
thought.  "But  where  shall  wisdom  be  found  ? 
and  where  is  the  place  of  understanding?  Man 
knoweth  not  the  price  thereof,  neither  is  it  found 
in  the  land  of  the  living."  Right  here,  beholding 
the  observations  through  heaven-pointed  lenses, 


72  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

that  man  may  read  first  causes  in  the  stars,  he 
gives  the  poetic  reply  of  space.  "  The  depth 
saith  it  is  not  in  me."  Now  beholding  the  kin- 
dled expectations  in  the  student  of  the  seas,  as  he 
traces  her  currents,  measures  her  waves  and  tides, 
and  reaches  her  deepest  deposits,  the  sea  is  made 
to  report,  "  It  is  not  with  me."  But  may  not 
wealth  and  position  gain  it  from  the  schools  ? 
He  answers  :  "  It  cannot  be  gotten  for  gold,  nei- 
ther shall  silver  be  weighed  for  the  price  thereof. 
It  cannot  be  valued  with  the  gold  of  Ophir,  with 
the  precious  onyx,  or  the  sapphire.  The  gold  and 
the  crystal  cannot  equal  it ;  and  the  exchange  of 
it  shall  not  be  for  jewels  of  fine  gold.  No  men- 
tion shall  be  made  of  coral  or  of  pearls  ;  for  the 
price  of  wisdom  is  above  rubies.  The  topaz  of 
Ethiopia  shall  not  equal  it,  neither  shall  it  be  val 
ued  with  pure  gold." 

Disappointed  in  reading  first  causes  in  all  these 
resources  man  still  inquires  :  "  Whence  then  com- 
eth  wisdom,  and  where  is  the  place  of  under- 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      73 

standing?  Seeing  it  is  hidden  from  the  eyes  of 
all  living,  and  kept  close  from  the  fowls  of  the 
air."  Let  now  the  dead  fossil  speak.  May  not 
the  entombed  life  of  forty  millions  of  years  open 
up  this  subject  to  man  ? 

16.  Destruction  and  death  say,  "  We  have 
heard  the  fame  thereof  with  our  ears.  God  un- 
derstandeth  the  way  thereof,  and  he  knoweth 
the  place  thereof  ;  for  he  looketh  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  seeth  under  the  whole  heavens, 
to  make  the  weight  of  the  winds,  and  he  weigh- 
eth  the  waters  by  measure.  When  he  made  a 
decree  for  the  rain,  and  a  way  for  the  lightning 
of  the  thunder  ;  then  did  he  see  it  and  declare 
it."  But  how  shall  man  gain  this  true  wi^lorn  of 
causes?  "  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe 
that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  him."  It  is  the  voice  of  the  Sav- 
iour, he  who  "walked  in  the  garden."  Men 
must  be  drawn  toward  God  before  they  can  see 
him  in  his  word.  "  And  unto  man  he  said,  Be- 


74  THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

hold  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom  ;  and 
to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding."  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that  more  reverence  for  God,  and 
less  egotistical  trust  in  self,  would  greatly  aid 
the  wisest  thinker  of  the  present  day.  We  have 
had  altogether  too  much  of  that  feigned  or  real 
pity  for  the  Bible,  as  unfortunate  in  its  allusions 
to  science,  deserving  to  be  ranked  with  the  su- 
perstitions of  the  untutored  masses  of  the  unlet- 
tered ages.  It  is  true  that  prophetic  allusions 
to  scientific  subjects  are  usually  poetic,  but  none 
the  less  specific  and  definite  for  this.  These  al- 
lusions embody  a  true  objective  view,  leaving  to 
science  the  task  to  subjectively  work  out  the  true 
condition  of  things  presenting  such  phenomena. 
Thus  prophecy  poetized  upon  the  "  Place  for 
light,  and  the  home  and  house  for  darkness  ;  and 
the  path  leading  to  the  bounds  between  them." 
Scientifically  explained,  one  pole  of  the  Earth 
must  have  pointed  steadily  to  the  sun,  leaving 
half  the  globe  in  perpetual  darkness. 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      75 

17.  Joshua  is  said  to  have  commanded   the 
sun  and  the  moon  to  stand  still,  and  they  obeyed 
him.     Subjectively  rendered  the    sun  went   not 
down,  during  one  night,  which  could  have  been 
objectively  accomplished  by  a  mirage.     As  this 
would  answer  the  purpose  for  which  the  phenom- 
ena is  reported,  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  is 
all  that  is  meant.     Again,  God  made  a  firmament. 
But    firmaments    called    heaven    are    not    things 
made.     Subjectively  rendered,  he  made  a  globe, 
from  which  the  visible  expanse  is  seen.     These 
figures  of  speech,  and  especially  the  one  called 
metonymy,  run  all  through  prophetic    sayings. 
The  heart's  willingness  to  accept  the  truth  is  often 
necessary  to  the  intellect's  perceiving  it. 

18.  The  Reformation  has  made  some  consider- 
able progress,  and  Job's  three  mistaken  friends 
begin  to  see  their  errors,  and  acknowledge  them- 
selves silenced.     Job's  renewed  ability  to  speak, 
and  the    readiness    with  which    he  handles    the 
subject    of   each  passing  event,    shows  that  the 


76  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

darkness  is  passing  away,  and  the  teachings  of 
these  dismal  ages  are  being  counteracted. 

19.  A  far  more  formidable  enemy,  in  the 
person  of  Elihu,  is  about  to  arise.  He  represents 
Secular  Education,  in  unbelief  of  the  inspiration 
of  God,  or  the  existence  of  true  piety.  He 
reasons  that  all  men  are  essentially  alike,  im- 
perfect ;  that  heredity,  inclination,  education  and 
surrounding  circumstances  account  for  all  the 
difference  in  men.  That  Job,  having  claimed  up- 
right intentions  before  God,  has  committed  a 
grave  offence.  His  God  is  one  of  cause.  "  I 
will  fetch  my  knowledge  from  afar :  he  that  is 
perfect  in  knowledge  is  with  thee.  My  lips  shall 
utter  knowledge  clearly.  All  flesh  shall  perish 
together."  What  is  this  but  infidel  l)eism  ? 
How  different  the  expression  of  the  wise  man  ! 
u  Who  knoweth  the  spirit  of  man  that  goeth* up- 
ward, and  the  spirit  of  the  beast  that  goeth 
downward  to  the  earth  ?  "  The  one  is  mortal,  the 
other  immortal.  For  some  cause  Job  is  silent, 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       77 

though  again  and  again  challenged  to  the  com- 
bat. Let  us  apply  a  little  history  to  the  prophetic 
drama.  French  Atheists,  in  a  convention  in  1808, 
put  forth  eighty-three  counts,  any  one  of  which 
was  claimed  sufficient  to  prove  the  Bible  to  be 
uninspired.  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  himself  a  Deist, 
wrote,  "  Of  these  counts,  not  one  of  them  remains 
today.  Science  has  laid  them  aside  as  untenable." 
20.  We  have  three  distinct  views  of  prayer, 
represented  in  Bildad,  Elihu  and  Job.  Bildad's 
view  is,  u  If  deserving,  you  can  have  all  you  ask 
for,  without  reference  to  law.  All  that  you 
need  is  faith  to  perpetuate  the  line  of  miracles." 
Elihu's  view  was  essentially  expressed  by  the 
Professor  who  threw  down  the  challenge,  called 
the  prayer  gauge.  Its  substance  was,  "Prayer 
changes  no  effect  following  cause.  It  cannot 
mitigate  the  death  rate  in  a  hospital."  Job's 
position  is  that  prayer  may  be  beneficial  when  in 
harmony  with  God's  laws.  There  are  three 
realms,  viz,  physics,  mind  and  spirit.  Mind  is 


78  THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

higher  than  physics,  and,  within  bounds,  rules 
it;  spirit  is  higher  than  either,  and  within 
bounds  rules  both:  that  prayer  to  God,  ever 
subject  to  u  Thy  will  be  done,  not  mine,"  may 
increase  the  power  of  the  spirit  in  man  over  the 
lower  realms  of  law,  thus  securing  wonderful 
help  from  God,  according  to  his  expressed  will 
in  law.  This  does  not  necessarily  involve  miracle 
in  the  answer  God  gives.  It  is  in  harmony  with 
the  law  of  the  spirit,  that  God  within  the  spirit 
greatly  increases  its  power  over  mind  and  matter. 
This  was  the  secret  of  Job's  power  over  his 
contestants.  This  power  Elihu  denied.  Secular 
Education  will  readily  admit  that  God,  by  his 
direct  power  (which  is  Special  Providence), 
created  matter,  again  set  it  in  motion,  again  gave 
life  to  portions  of  it,  etc.,  and  then  deny  that 
God  would  listen  to  the  cry  of  his  children  for 
spiritual  or  material  help.  This  modern  Elihu 
has  completely  ignored  the  efforts  of  God  to  help 
the  would-be  scientists  to  phenomena  and  prin- 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      79 

ciples,  which  would  link  his  knowledge  of  nature 
in  happy  relation  with  first  causes.  Hence  in  the 
end,  like  Elihu,  he  is  destined  to  be  completely 
confounded. 

21.  Two  thousand  years  ago,  science  establish- 
ed   the    Ptolemaic    theory    of    Astronomy.     It 
taught  it  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  when  the 
Copernican  theory  forced  its  way  to  the  front. 
And  now,  it    is    evident,    the    true    theory    was 
clearly  taught  in  God's  first  book  of  Inspiration, 
called  Scripture.     A  few  years  since,  Elihu,  as  a 
learned  professor,  would  take  a  piece  of  granite 
in  his    hand,  and  learnedly  talk    of  the  crystals 
formed,    as    it    slowly   cooled,   as  the  first  crust 
formed  upon  the  sea  of  lava. 

22.  Now,  the  same  professor  talks  to  his  class 
of  the  sedimentary  nature  of  the  rock,  and  the 
crystals  formed  under  great  pressure*  in  the  deep 
sea.     Four  thousand  years  ago,  the  Bible  gave 
this  knowledge  to  the  world.     For  some  cause, 
Job  is  reticent  while  Elihu  speaks.     He  speaks 


80  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY. 

as  a  "  beast  of  power,  rising  up  out  of  the 
earth."  But  God  has  something  to  say  as  to  who 
shall  stand  in  the  coming  ages.  Piety  will  stand 
up,  and  God  will  answer  as  by  the  power  of 
the  whirlwind.  Chap.  38.  "  Gird  up  now  thy 
loins  like  a  man,  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and 
answer  thou  me.  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  earth  ?  Declare,  if  thou 
hast  understanding.  Who  hath  laid  the  measures 
thereof,  if  thou  knowest,  or  who  hath  stretched 
the  line  upon  it  ?  Whereupon  are  the  foundations 
thereof  fastened,  or  who  laid  the  cornerstone 
thereof  ?  "  Marginal  reading  a  made  the  corner- 
stone to  sink."  Balancing  order,  in  exact  equi- 
pose,  is  proclaimed  in  science.  u  Not  one  star 
could  be  spared,"  say  the  Solons  of  Philosophy, 
"without  throwing  all  into  the  greatest  con- 
fusion." The  balancing  of  the  primary  gases, 
as  each  sun  gathered  in  the  beginning,  was  seen 
by  Job.  "  When  the  morning  stars  sang  to- 
gether, and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy." 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.       81 

23.  The  great  under-waters  were  once  impris- 
oned as  though  shut  behind  doors.  "  Or  who 
shut  up  the  sea  with  doors  when  it  brake  forth 
as  if  it  had  issued  out  of  the  womb?  "  Kotund- 
ity  of  the  Earth  is  here  given  with  the  inside 
water.  He  saw  the  young  Earth  first  "  clothed 
in  a  garment  of  clouds,"  and  "  thick  darkness 
a  swaddling  band  about  it."  He  saw  the  "foun- 
dations of  the  earth  breaking  up,"  as  the  flood  in 
Noah's  day  poured  in  over  the  earth.  "  And 
brake  up  the  decreed  place  for  it,"  and  set  new 
"  bars  and  doors."  A  change  of  polarity,  and 
when  it  took  place,  is  seen.  "  Hast  thou  com- 
manded the  morning  since  thy  days,  and  caused 
the  day-spring  to  know  his  place,  that  it  might 
take  hold  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  that  the  wick- 
ed might  be  shaken  out  of  it?  "  When  have  the 

• 

wicked  been  shaken  out  of  it,  but  when  u  all 
the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken 
up?''  The  finishing  touch  is  added  to  the  Co- 
pernican  system.  u  It  is  turned  as  clay  to  the 


82  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

seal."  Allusion  is  made  to  the  clay  on  the  pot- 
ter's wheel  rotating  to  a  fixed  seal  shaping  the 
same.  In  contrast  to  its  present  motion,  he  saw 
a  former  condition  with  pole  pointing  to  the  sun. 
This  was  a  motion  that  never  exchanged  the 
darkness  for  light,  nor  light  for  darkness,  but 
both  remained  stationary.  "  Where  is  the  way 
where  light  dwelleth  ?  and  as  for  darkness,  where 
is  the  place  thereof,  that  thou  shouldst  take  it  to 
the  bound  thereof,  and  that  thou  shouldst  know 
the  paths  to  the  house  thereof  ? "  He  saw  the 
contrasted  appearance  of  the  former  earth  to 
her  present  contour.  "  The  waters  are  hid  as 
with  a  stone."  Altogether,  the  land  hemisphere 
covered  the  under- waters ;  "  and  the  face  of  the 
deep  is  frozen."  The  face  of  the  deep  in  the 
southern  hemisphere  of  the  ancient  earth  was 
locked  in  darkness  and  perpetual  ice.  He  had 
asked  the  question,  "  Out  of  whose  womb  came 
the  ice  ?  "  Where  was  it  born  ?  This  is  one 
of  the  most  perplexing  questions  in  science. 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      83 

24.  Where  was  the  ice  born  that  once  plowed 
such  deep  furrows  over  hill  and  dale,  that 
climbed  the  rugged  mountain,  and  filled  ancient 
river  beds  with  three  thousand  feet  of  drift  ?  In 
vain  do  you  ask  where  the  ice  came  from  that 
scooped  out  the  Yosemite  Valley,  or  laid  the 
deep  beds  of  water-washed  pebbles  along  the 
Sierra  Nevada  mountains.  God  has  answered 
it  in  giving  the  ancient  polarity,  by  which  the 
mighty  deep  of  one  half  the  globe  was  covered 
with  ice.  Again,  "  Who  hath  divided  a  water- 
course for  the  overflowing  of  waters,  or  a  way 
for  the  lightning  of  the  thunder  ?  "  Our  earth 
is  a  magnet.  The  way  of  the  lightning  produces 
spiral  effects  on  plants  and  cyclones  from  the 
equator  to  each  pole.  The  earth  being  divided, 
forming  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  the  pole  being 
locally  changed  on  the  globe,  a  new  way  for  the 
lightning  is  formed.  This  poem  is  wonderful  for 
its  flights  of  prophetic  views.  The  vision,  from 
comprehending  the  phenomena  attending  the 


84  THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

globe  in  its  antediluvian  state,  now  changes  to 
a  mode  of  communication  by  telegraph  of  our 
own  time.  To  identify  the  century  in  which  it 
would  appear,  he  resorted  to  the  third  clock  of 
the  heavens,  measured  by  precession.  He  noticed 
that  beautiful  cluster  of  stars  called  the  Plei- 
ades at  the  usual  time  of  Zenith  measurement, 
in  the  evening,  standing  over  the  January  thaw, 
followed  in  a  few  days  with  Orion's  belt  in  the 
same  place.  At  the  time  of  Job's  captivity  the 
Pleiades  rose  to  the  Zenith  on  the  10th  day  of 
November.  By  the  slow  action  of  precession 
they  have  moved  eastward,  until  now  they  come 
to  the  Zenith  on  the  second  day  of  January. 
Only  eighteen  days  elapse  before  Orion's  belt 
stands  in  the  Zenith  to  look  down  on  sealed  riv- 
ers, as  the  thaw  is  over. 

25.  u  Canst  thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of 
the  Pleiades,  or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  ?  "  The 
time  in  this  poetic  allusion  is  our  present  century. 
The  phenomena  seen  is  employing  lightning  as  a 


FIRST  PRESENTED  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB.      85 

messenger.  "  Canst  thou  send  lightnings  that 
they  may  go,  and  say  unto  thee,  Here  we  are?" 
Proceeding  to  give  the  habits  and  instincts  of  a 
few  representative  animals  in  natural  history, 
Job  proposed  to  sit  down  and  say  no  more. 

26.  But  God  proposed  to  gird    him  for  the 
description  of  two  representative  fossil  animals 
of  the  Middle  and  Tertiary  ages.     For  the  rul- 
ing king  of  saurians,  he  described  Ichthyosaurus 
under  the  title  of  Leviathan.     For  the  king  of 
the  Myocene  period  he  described  the  Megatha- 
reum  under  the  title  of  Behemoth.     God  opens 
the  understanding  of  Job's  three  mistaken  friends, 
and  makes  demands  for  repentance   and  repara- 
tion.    Job  becomes  their  intercessor.     The  cap- 
tivity of  Piety  ends  here.    The  "times  of  the  gen- 
tiles are  fulfilled."     "  The  sanctuary  is  cleansed." 
u  Babylon  is  fallen."     "  The  white  horse  appears, 
and  Jesus  reigns    King  of   kings  and   Lord   of 
lords." 

27.  Now  commences  the  grandest  era  of  Job's 


86  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY. 

life.  It  is  double  in  prosperity  to  all  going 
before.  The  time  for  its  continuance  is  very 
long.  The  universal  respect  that  will  be  shown 
the  church,  the  voluntary  contributions  in  liberal 
free-will  offerings,  the  abundance  of  peace  and 
prosperity,  are  well  diagrammed  and  set  forth  in 
the  closing  events  of  Job's  life. 

Elihu  will  still  talk  of  the  "Twilight  of 
Christianity,"  but  faith  is  looking  for  the  dawn 
of  Christ's  triumph,  when  the  dragon,  "like 
lightning,"  must  "  fall  from  the  heavens,"  and 

nations  will  hail  with  joy  the  reign  of  righteous- 

• 

ness. 

"  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates  ;  and  be  ye 
lifted  up  ye  everlasting  doors ;  and  the  King  of 
glory  shall  come  in. 

"  Who  is  this  King  of  glory  ?  The  Lord,  strong 
and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle.  The  Lord 
of  hosts  ;  he  is  the  King  of  glory." 


CHAPTER  III. 

ALL    THE    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES   TO   COS- 
MOLOGY ARE  IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE 
BOOK  OF  JOB. 

1.  Peter  must  have    understood    the   import 
of  this  divine  poem,  when  he  wrote,  "For   this 
they  are  willingly  ignorant  of,  that  by  the  word 
of  God  the  heavens  were  of  old,  and  the  earth 
standing    out  of  the  water  and   in    the    water." 
So  also  "  The  earth,  that  then  was,  being  over- 
flowed." 

2.  So  Solomon  understood  the   poem.     Per- 
sonifying the  eternity  of  wisdom,  under  things 
timely,  he  wrote,    "  Before  the  mountains  were 
settled,    before    the  hills    were    brought    forth." 
Notice  the  sedimentary  character  of   the  moun- 
tains !      u  While    as    yet  he  had   not   made  the 
earth  (in  form).    When  he  prepared  the  heavens, 


88  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

I  was  there  ;    when    he  set  a  compass    (circle) 
upon  the  face  of  the  depth  (space)." 

3.  The  spirit  of  this  poem  must  have  inspired 
the    Psalmist,   when    he    ascribed    thanks    unto 
"  Him    who  stretcheth  out  the  earth  above   the 
waters."     And  again,  "  He  hath  founded  it  upon 
the  seas,  and  established  it  upon  the  floods." 

4.  Moses  must  have    possessed  this  sublime 
poem  in  the  wilderness.      By  an  easy  succession 
of  steps,  he  could  find  his  way  back  to  where 
suns,  in    gathering,   kept  time  to  the  marching 
forces    of    Jehovah,    as    a    well    trained     choir. 
u  When  the  morning  stars  sang  together."     Not 
content  here,  he  sought  farther  aid  of  God,  and 
swung  out  into  the  voids  of  space,  where  heat, 
light,  force,  and  gravitation  slept  in  the  embrace 
of  chaos  ;  yea,    still    farther  back  to  when  and 
where  matter  was    not.     He   heard    God   speak 
matter  into  existence.     It  was  from  this  vision  he 
wrote,  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth."     As  it  came  from  the  hand  of 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  89 

God, "  It  was  without  form,  and  darkness  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  deep." 

Matter  without  form  is  in  gas  ;  and  to  be  in 
equilibrium,  it  must  be  equally  diffused  in  all  that 
portion  of  space  now  containing  matter.  Inertia 
would  incapacitate  its  moving.  Without  motion, 
light  was  impossible  ;  without  centers,  gravitation 
had  not  commenced.  Such  was  matter  in  the 
darkness  of  chaos  without  form,  called  night.  A 
force  from  without  must  overcome  inertia,  and 
give  birth  to  form,  light,  heat,  gravitation,  and 
power  at  the  same  time.  This  power  is  brought 
to  our  view  in  the  following  sublime  sentence  : 
"  And  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters''  (fluids).  Gravitation  acts  instanta- 
neously throughout  space.  Therefore  the  gather- 
ing of  any  one  center  as  a  sun,  would  necessitate 
the  gathering  of  every  central  sun  in  relative 
accord. 

5.  Gravitating  centers  account  for  centripetal 
motion  only.  Acted  upon  by  gravitation  alone, 


90  THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY 

all  matter  within  each  system  would  start  for  the 
center  direct.  Hence,  centrifugal  force  also  must 
have  been  imparted  to  all  that  portion  of  gaseous 
chaos,  destined  to  become  planets.  With  these 
two  forces  acting  upon  them,  they  would  naturally 
assume  the  shape  of  an  immense  ring  about  the 
sun.  Those  gases  destined  to  make  our  sun, 
must  have  traversed  a  space  of  not  less  than 
twenty  trillion  of  miles ;  possibly,  in  some  direc- 
tions thirty  trillion  of  miles.  The  center  would  be 
small  at  first;  and  should  these  gases  float  thirty 
miles  per  hour,  it  would  take  ninety  million  of 
our  years  to  gather  the  sun  complete.  In  such 
condition,  from  the  voids  of  space  Moses  beheld 
our  system,  and  noticed  that  the  "  waters  above 
the  firmament  were  not  separated  from  the  waters 
beneath/'  If  from  a  tall  mountain  we  behold 
a  rainbow,  when  the  sun  is  quite  low  we  shall  see 
a  complete  circle  of  prismatic  colors.  If  one 
should  report  that  the  colors  above  the  firmament 
were  not  separate  from  the  colors  beneath  the 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  91 

firmament,  we  should  readily  understand  that  the 
bow  was  continuous  as  a  circle.  Now  imagine 
these  colors  tangible  gases,  and  a  sun  placed  in 
the  center,  and  you  have  some  faint  conception  of 
the  grand  objective  view  of  the  prophet,  as  he  be- 
held the  first  morning  of  creation.  The  condition 
in  darkness,  unmeasured  by  time,  he  had  called 
night.  The  condition  in  light,  unmeasured  by 
flight  of  years,  he  called  morning.  "  And  the 
evening  and  the  morning  were  day  first."  The 
vision,  from  contemplating  matter  as  divided 
into  systems,  now  changes  to  prospective  Earth, 
as  yet  without  form.  If  the  lack  of  form  con- 
stituted its  evening,  then,  when  it  gains  a  form, 
it  will  be  its  morning.  The  gases  that  were  to 
form  earth,  then  lay  diffused  in  the  firmament 
ring. 

6.  A  spark  would  unite  a  field  of  Hydrogen 
and  Oxygen,  and  cause  a  division  in  the  ring,  as 
a  new  element  much  lighter,  formed  in  space  in 
the  condition  of  superheated  steam.  Its  lightness 


92  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

would  cause  it  to  evolve  outside  the  ring,  and 
take  the  form  of  a  globe.  "  And  God  made  the 
firmament,"  and  he  called  it  "heaven,"  which  is 
the  visible  expanse  of  a  half  circle  or  sphere 
above  our  heads  ;  "  and  he  divided  the  waters 
which  were  under  the  firmament,  (the  first,  which 
was  a  tangible  circle)  from  the  waters  which  were 
above  the  firmament."  The  Earth  is  in  form,  but 
has,  as  yet,  but  two  gases  ;  and  these  unite  in 
steam.  The  second  day  of  creation  ends  without 
a  ''footprint "  for  the  unassisted  geologists  to 
trace.  Well  may  Job  refer  man  to  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  for  the  wisdom  of  first  cause  and 
the  early  changes  of  matter.  This  newly  formed 
firmament,  or  visible  expanse,  which,  by  figure  of 
metonymy  means  a  newly  formed  globe,  differs 
materially  from  the  ring  substance  of  the  sun, 
which  gave  rise  to  the  term  firmament.  This 
second  firmament  is  not  made  of  tangible  gases, 
nor  is  its  appearance  to  dwellers  on  the  earth  con- 
tinuous. Hence,  the  making  of  this  firmament  is 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  93 

the  objective  description  of  the  formation  of  our 
Earth  as  a  globe.  With  a  world  of  steam  in 
globe  form,  the  second  age  or  day  of  creation 
ended.  The  matter,  that  gathered  would  con- 
stitute Earth,  while  floating  in  chaos  was  called 
evening.  When  the  globe  took  its  form,  though 
only  a  world  of  steam,  it  was  called  morning. 
"  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
second  day."  No  measurement  of  twenty-four 
hour  days  had  commenced  yet.  Having  followed 
our  globe  out  into  space,  the  prophet  now  confines 
his  observations  to  this  single  planet.  He  be- 
holds the  outside  liquifying,  and  he  follows  it 
into  its  present  orbit.  He  made  no  mention  of 
the  "  swaddling  band,"  it  tqok  out  of  the  ring  as 
it  passed  back  toward  the  sun.  This  had  been 
well  noticed  by  Job,  as  well  as  the  manner  of  the 
first  deposits.  But  he  noticed  the  appearance 
of  dry  land ;  and  the  introduction  of  terrestrial 
vegetation,  and  described  them  as  cryptogam 
"  having  the  seed  in  itself."  He  had  followed 


94  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

the  gathering  together  of  the  waters  as  a  grand 
sea,  and  the  inorganic  deposits  as  a  long  evening; 
and  now,  to  bring  out  a  grand  contrast,  as  morn- 
ing, he  waited  until  the  forests  sung  the  praises 
of  God's  creative  hand  in  bestowing  life.  "  And 
the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day." 
But  this  vegetation  grows  in  the  veiled  light, 
much  as  the  gray  of  twilight.  This  twilight  is 
the  evening  of  the  fourth  day.  Contrasting  with 
it  is  pure  sunlight.  The  Carboniferous  age  of 
the  world  cleared  the  air  of  these  deadly  gases, 
and  let  in  the  sunshine  upon  the  earth.  This 
was  morning.  In  noticing  this,  he  is  reminded 
that  this  globe  is  occupying  his  entire  attention  ; 
and  yet  God  made  all  the  planets  and  suns  of  the 
heavens.  So  the  source  of  light  is  again  noticed 
and  its  proper  name  given  to  it,  and  the  relation 
it  sustains  to  our  own  time  noticed  and  record- 
ed, "The  sun  to  give  light  by  day."  In  a  similar 
manner  the  moon  and  the  stars  were  all  noticed. 
As  vegetation  had  now  arrived  at  its  climax. 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  95 

Moses  closed  this  age,  making  the  cryptogam 
in  the  gray  twilight  the  evening,  and  its  contrast 
the  gay  flower  basking  in  clear  sunlight  the  morn 
ing.  "  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  fourth  day." 

7.  Gases  are  combined  into  rock  through  the 
agency  of  air  and  water.  There  are  three  .meth- 
ods of  conveying  or  changing  gas  into  rock.  The 
first  is  by  gases  mingling  directly  with  the  water. 
This  gave  us  the  larger  portion  of  sedimentary 
rock.  For  aught  that  science  has  yet  discov- 
ered, the  entire  bed  of  primary  granite  was  made 
in  this  manner.  The  second  is  by  combining  the 
gases  by  means  of  diatoms  and  polyps  of  the 
seas.  These  animals  do  not  depend  upon  vege- 
tation, but  draw  their  nourishment  directly  from 
the  waters.  Their  remains  constitute  large  por- 
tions of  sedimentary  rock.  The  marble  and  chalk 
are  formed  almost  entirely  of  their  remains,  while 
all  sedimentary  rock  this  side  the  granite  con- 
tains more  or  less  of  their  remains.  A  third  wav 


96  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

is  by  gases  combining  in  vegetation.  Anthra- 
cite coal  is  ninety-six  per  cent,  carbon,  combined 
through  vegetation. 

8.  It  is  evident  that  the  days  of  creation  were 
not  given  to  mark  an  order  of  time.     (1.)    Cre- 
ation commenced    before    time.     (2.)    Without 
motion  there  could  be  no  measure  of  duration. 
(3.)  The  fifth  day  includes  all  the  fourth  and 
part  of  the  third  ;  and  could  therefore  be  no  or- 
der of  time. 

9.  They  were  not  designed  to  mark  an  order 
in  the  deposit  of  rock.     All  stratified  rock,  from 
the  Gneiss  to  the  Myocene  deposit,  is  included 
in  the  fifth  day.     They  do  not,  therefore,  give  a 
progressive  order  of  deposit. 

10.  They  were  designed  to  give  two  morn- 
ings of  inorganic  changes  of  matter,  with  two 
contrasting  evenings  ;    two  organic   changes,  as 
mornings  of    vegetation,  with  contrasting  even- 
ings ;  two  organic  changes,  as  mornings  of  ani- 
U'als,  with  contrasting  evenings.    These  days  are 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  97 

all  spoken  of  as  noting  a  beginning,  a  middle, 
and  a  close.  The  beginning  and  close  are  con- 
trasts. This  mode  of  measurement  may  have 
been  derived  from  Job  9  :  9 — "  Which  maketh 
the  Bear,  Orion,  and  Pleiades."  Here  is  Orion, 
marking  the  colure  line  of  the  Spring  equinox  at 
the  creation  of  man  ;  the  Bear,  marking  the  same 
Spring  equinox  at  the  end  of  time  ;  and  Pleia- 
des, marking  the  date  at  which  these  visions 
came  to  the  prophet.  Thus  we  have  the  begin- 
ning and  ending  of  the  human  race  in  contrast, 
and  a  middle  date  of  passing  events.  Thus,  with 
Moses  the  vision  of  creation  opens  with  the  crea- 
tion of  all  matter,  and  the  first  day  ends  with 
the  morning  of  light.  The  inertia  of  rest  in 
chaos  intervened.  The  Earth,  without  form,  and 
the  Earth,  in  form,  is  contrasted,  the  second  day, 
with  a  separated  firmament  of  the  sun  interven- 
ing. In  the  third  day,  we  have  evening  com- 
mencing with  two  gases  in  the  form  of  a  steam 
globe,  contrasted  with  the  waving  forests  of  the  ' 


98  THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY 

Devonian  age  of  geology,  with  the  millions  of 
years  of  deposits  of  inorganic  substance  interven- 
ing. The  language  explaining  the  fourth  day 
seems  to  be  about  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  But 
that  these  might  shine  in  on  the  Earth,  there 
was  involved  the  idea  of  removing  the  Earth's 
"  swaddling  band,"  alluded  to  by  Job.  Hence 
the  language  involves  an  evening  of  twilight  in 
which  Cryptogams,  as  the  beginning  of  Earth's 
vegetation,  would  contrast  with  the  flowers  bask- 
ing in  clear  sun  light,  while  the  slow  process  of 
how  God  caused  the  sun  to  shine  in  on  the  Earth, 
by  working  this  dark  band  of  gases  into  its  crust, 
intervened.  Nowhere  is  this  rule  seen  so  clearly 

:> 

as  in  the  language  pertaining  to  the  fifth  day; 
Here,  the  infusoria  of  the  sea  is  made  to  con- 
trast with  the  whale  ;  while  birds  intervene.  These 
diatoms  began  in  the  deposit  of  the  Gneiss  rock. 
The  whale  is  found  in  the  Myocene  and  since. 
The  solitary  reign  of  beasts  is  noted  as  evening, 
contrasting  with  the  reign  of  God's  people  as 


UNDERSTOOD    BY    BIBLE    WRITERS.  99 

u  priests  and  kings  unto  God,"  at  the  close  of 
time.  Intervening  are  the  events  of  human  his- 
tory. Thus,  every  day  of  the  six  is  shown  by 
contrasts. 

11.  A  general  providence  runs  in  law,  evolv- 
ing progress  as  far  as  Nature's  law  is  adapted  ; 
but  when  Nature  fails  to  meet  any  new  want, 
special  providence  steps  in,  with  additional  forces 
to  supply  the  deficiency.  Space  was  an  empty 
nakedness,  and  God  created  matter  therein.  Mat- 
ter was  without  form  aftd  void,  and  God  started 
it  in  motion.  Matter  was  without  life,  and  God 
created  the  life.  The  beasts  of  the  field  were 
without  a  moral  spirit.  And  God  made  man  in 
his  own  image,  blessed  with  immortality,  and 
capable  of  attaining  to  eternal  life.  For  farther 
particulars,  see  Sec.  4. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  PHENOMENA  TO  WHICH  ALLUSIONS  ARE 
SO  FREELY  MADE  IN  THE  "  SlX  DAYS  OF 
MOSES,"  SUGGEST  CERTAIN  SCIENTIFIC  NE- 
CESSITIES, REPLETE  WITH  GEOLOGICAL  IN- 
FORMATION, WHICH  DEMONSTRATE  THE  PRO- 
GRESSIVE WORK  OF  GOD,  FOR  MATTER,  IN 
MATTER,  BY  AND  THROUGH  MATTER,  AND 
ABOVE  MATTER,  TO  THE  END  OF  TIME. 

£ 

Two  books  give  a  revelation  of  God,  Nature 
and  the  Bible.  Except  for  purposes  of  intelli- 
gent connection,  as  a  rule,  the  revelations  of  one 
are  not  repeated  in  the  other.  Revelation  on  the 
subject  of  cosmos  is  evidently  intended  to  supply 
parts,  which  nature  is  not  adapted  to  unfold. 
Each  stands  as  a  part  of  a  great  whole;  that  the 
true  student  of  nature  may  be  thoroughly  fur- 
nished with  proper  text  books,  which,  when 
rightly  understood,  are  conjointly  harmonious, 


DISPLAYED  IN  THE  SIX  DAYS'  WORK  OF  GOD.  101 

connected,  and  exhaustive.  If  man  would  at- 
tain even  the  faintest  ability  to  measure  the 
"  footprints  of  God "  in  nature,  or  fathom  the 
relation  of  first  causes  in  creation,  he  can  ill  af- 
ford unacquaintance  with  either  book.  The  Bible 
is  given  as  a  supplement  to  God's  voice  in  na- 
ture. Creation,  shown  in  harmony  with  the  tes- 
timony of  the  rocks,  confirms  the  testimony  of 
Moses.  The  unsupported  hypotheses  of  men 
have  led  some  to  deplore  the  "  mistakes  of  Moses." 
A  better  acquaintance  with  both  books  will  lead 
them,  it  is  thought,  at  least  to  respect  his  great 
prophetic  knowledge,  in  outlining  creation's  ori- 
gin and  forces. 

SECTION  1. 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  FIRST  DAY. 

1.  The  account,  given  in  Genesis,  of  creation 
is  in  the  form  of  an  Epic  Poem.  As  a  treatise 
on  any  subject,  it  would  be  incomplete.  Its  de- 


102       THE    NEPTUNIAN   THEORY    DISPLAYED 

sign  seems  to  be  to  give,  in  the  form  of  poetic 
suggestions,  the  connecting  links  to  unite  cre- 
ation with  creation's  God.  For  such  a  purpose, 
it  is  the  grandest  and  most  complete  of  all  pro- 
ductions of  the  pen.  Six  of  these  days  are 
marked  by  contrasts,  "  called  evening  and  morn- 
ing" but  the  seventh  is  peculiar,  having  neither. 
The  sixth  is  said  to  close  God's  labor  with  mat- 
ter. Unmeasured  duration  is,  doubtless,  the 
seventh. 

2.  The  "  deep,"  when  used  in  reference  to  the 
heavens,  means  immensity  of  space  ;  as  :  "  dark- 
ness was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep."     Darkness 
is  the  normal  state  of  space.     Not  dependent  on 
matter,   it    is    eternal.      Moses    saw    all    matter 
created  at  once.     God's  work,  as  revealed  here 
for  matter,   is   in    harmony  with  correlation   of 
matter  in  science. 

3.  By  a  beautiful   figure  of  metonymy,  poets 
speak  of  a  part  implying  the  whole.      Such  is  the 
word  "  Earth,"  as  first  introduced  in  this  produc- 


"tBRART* 
'  or  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

S.«C£U£OB^^ 
IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       103 

tion.  "  And  the  earth  (all  matter)  was  without 
form."  Inertia  holds  all  in  rest.  An  act,  fiat, 
or  work  of  God,  above  matter,  is  requisite,  to  set 
it  in  motion.  "  And  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  deep."  A  system  formed 
with  a  center  of  light  is  noted.  All  systems  are 
members  of  this  choir. 

4.  Science  would  suggest,  that,  if  a  ponder- 
ous globe,  as  our  sun,  should  gather  in  a  field  of 
gases,  though  trillions  of  miles  in  diameter,  all 
gases,  within  its  drawing  sphere,  must  either  go 
toward  the  sun,  or  be  thrown  around  it  in  a  cir- 
cle. Such  was  the  ring  of  waters,  or  fluids,  first 
called  a  firmament.  A  most  minute  directing 
of  Providence  is  here  suggested.  It  extended 
to  each  molecule  of  gas,  and  its  appropriate 
place  was  determined.  Before  that  grand  move- 
ment of  the  Spirit  of  God,  there  was  nothing 
with  which  to  measure  duration,  and  time  had 
not  commenced.  No  centers — no  gravitation. 
No  motion — no  light  or  force.  All  this  is  sug- 


104       THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

gested  in  matter  "  without  form."  Suns  only 
had  form  at  the  close  of  the  first  day.  As  sys- 
tems revolved,  measured  duration  might  have 
commenced  at  the  revolutions  of  suns  about  a 
grand  center.  One  day  at  the  sun  would  be 
twenty-seven  of  ours ;  one  year,  eighteen  thous- 
and of  ours.  This  first  day  of  creation  may  have 
been  one  hundred  million  of  years.  It  included 
the  length  of  these  contrasts  to  a  climax,  dark- 
ness— light.  The  one  reigning  over  all  matter, 
the  other  forming  from  matter,  under  the  di- 
rection of  God. 

5.  If  the  first  is  a  literal  day,  so  are  the  sev- 
en. If  the  first  is  poetic,  so  are  the  seven.  That 
the  first  was  not  literal,  is  evident  in  that  the 
u Earth  was  without  form"  as  yet.  Hence  there 
was  no  twenty -four  hour  measurement.  Day  is 
also  used  to  signify  a  nation's  history.  It  is  not 
that.  It  is  also  used  to  signify  the  life  of  an  indi- 
vidual. It  could  not  be  that.  "  A  day  with  the 
Lord  is  as  a  thousand  years."  It  is  evident  that 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       105 

Peter  was  merely  hinting  at  the  indefiniteness,  as 
to  time,  of  the  Mosaic  days.  It  remains,  then, 
that  it  is  a  cosmological  day,  without  exact  meas- 
urement of  time.  It  certainly  includes  all  that 
period  of  chaotic,  darkness  before  time  commenc- 
ed. Should  these  gases  move  across  the  radii  of 
our  system  with  the  speed  of  light,  it  would  take 
thirty-five  days  ;  but  should  the  gases  move  like 
an  atmosphere  in  space,  it  would  take  more  than 
ninety  million  of  years  to  gather  the  sun.  The 
greater  probability  is  that  these  contrasted  con- 
ditions of  the  first  day,  poetically  described  with- 
out any  exact  measurement,  if  measured,  would 
extend  through  more  than  one  hundred  million 
of  our  years. 

SECTION  2. 

4 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  SECOND  DAY. 

1.      CREATION  includes  not  only  the  bringing 
into  existence  of  matter,  but  all  its  undeveloped 


106      THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

forces  and  changes.  Revelation,  upon  this  sub- 
ject, is  suggestive,  rather  than  exhaustive,  of  what 
we  need  above  what  Nature  shows,  to  trace  cre- 
ation back  to  God.  The  greatest  difficulty  in 
reading  this  poem  understandingly,  is  in  rightly 
rendering  the  phenomena  noticed  upon  the  sec- 
ond day.  Figures  of  metonymy  abound.  As  a 
rule,  figures  once  used  in  prophecy  are  not  chang- 
ed when  used  by  another  prophet.  Hence,  we 
may  derive  benefit  by  seeing  how  other  prophets 
have  used  them.  Job  had  made  the  gathering  of 
suns  at  the  creation  of  light  a  morning  in  fig- 
ure. Moses  is  about  to  use  the  same  figure,  and 
beholding  the  darkness  of  chaos  preceding,  he 
extended  the  figure  to  an  evening  preceding. 
This  is  the  only  day  that  pertains  to  light  and 
darkness.  The  second  day  will  be  analogous  in 
contrast.  Whatever  be  the  one,  the  other  will 
contrast.  The  evening  of  Earth  is  given.  "  And 
the  Earth  was  without  form."  The  contrast  will 
be  the  Earth  in  form,  for  morning. 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       107 

2.  To  read    these   allusions  understandingly, 
every  sentence  must  be  cosmologically  analyzed 
in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge  of  astron- 
omy, chemistry,  philosophy,  geology,  and  rheto-* 
ric.     There  is  a  grand  suggestion  of    progress, 
couched  in  the  figure  of  morning  succeeding  even- 
ing.    The  morning  of  each    day  is    a  complete 
contrast  to  its  own  evening  ;  and  yet  the  morn- 
ing of  that  day  is  only  the  evening  of  the  day  fol- 
lowing.    The  morning  of  the  sun,  with  hosts  of 
God's  angels  rejoicing,  is  only  the  evening  of  the 
prospective  globe,  upon  whose  disk  shall  be  per- 
fected, in  knowledge  and  true  holiness,  beings  in 
God's  own  image.  The  sun  has  perfected  his  day, 
in  which  Moses  beholds  the  evening  of  the  second. 

3.  He  is  looking  at  our  system,  as  from  the 
voids  of  space,  as  a  whole  ;  with  its  gathered  sun 
and  its  immense  ring  of  prospective  planets.    It  is 
now  shown  him  that  a  change  is  to  take  place  in 
the  ring,  which  will*  result  in  the  form  of  a  globe. 
To  that  part  of  the    ring  he  draws  near.     The 


108       THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

first  phenomenon  noticed  was  a  separation  in  the 
ring  between  the  "  waters  above,  and  those  be- 
low." The  gases  thus  uniting  m  one  substance, 
"  soon  left  this  firmament  ring  of  the  sun,  and  had 
a  firmament  of  its  own,  called  heaven,  or  visible 
expanse.  The  Hebrew  word  translated  "  firma- 
ment "  implies  something  tangible,  and  yet  it 
was  used  to  denote  the  visible  expanse. 

4.  The  first  firmament  was  composed  of  tan- 
gible gases  or  waters,  so  called  ;  the  second  is 
the  expanse  of  heaven.  The  cause  of  the  sepa- 
rated waters  is  seen  in  what  follows.  These 
fluids  that  evolved  out,  leaving  the  ring  separat- 
ed, are  now  in  a  condition  that  they  only  have 
to  be  gathered  together  into  one  place  to  be  a 
sea.  It  was  then  steam.  The  suggestion  is 
that  an  immense  field  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen 
had  united  by  the  spark  which  separated  the 
ring,  and  as  the  union  was  superheated  steam, 
it  evolved  out  into  the  voids  of  space  as  a  globe. 
It  is  plain  then  "  And  God  made  a  firmament  in 


IN   THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK   OF    GOD.      109 

the  midst  of  the  waters,"  means  he  made  a 
globe,  from  which  the  visible  expanse  is  seen. 
The  vision  now  places  the  prophet  upon  this 
globe,  the  changes  of  which  will  occupy  his  at- 
tention to  the  end. 

5.  Whether  any  or  all  the  planets  were 
formed  at  the  same  time,  we  are  not  told.  No 
allusion  is  made  to  them  except  an  incidental  one, 
on  the  fourth  day,  so  that  all  things  should  be 
traced  back  to  God  as  their  Maker.  If  the 
union  of  two-  gases  took  out  a  segment  of  the 
ring,  leaving  it  "  separated,"  it  would  only  be 
temporary,  as  the  ring  would  close  up  again. 
Whether  our  planet  was  the  first,  third,  or  last 
formed,  no  mention  is  made.  The  vision  is  de- 
signed henceforth  to  unfold  what  we  need  to 
know  of  Earth,  not  found  in  nature.  Our  globe 
in  chaos  of  gases,  sweeping  around  the  sun  in 
the  form  of  a  ring,  is  evening,  being  "  without 
form."  Our  globe  in  steam,  having  a  firma- 
ment of  its  own,  is  in  shape,  and  this  is  "  morn- 


110      THE    NEPTUNIAN   THEORY    DISPLAYED 

ing."  Solomon  must  have  given  such  an  inter- 
pretation to  the  account  of  the  second  day. 
Prov.  8  :  27.  Tracing  the  unmeasured  age  of 
wisdom,  "  Before  the  mountains  were  settled, 
before  the  hills,  while  as  yet  he  had  not  made 
the  Earth,  when  he  prepared  the  heavens,  I 
was  there ;  when  he  set  a  compass  (or  circle) 
upon  the  face  of  the  depth."  A  globe  of  steam, 
possibly  highly  charged  with  electricity,  revolv- 
ing in  an  orbit  outside  the  ring  of  planetary 
gases,  was  all  that  constituted  Earth  at  this  time. 
"  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
second  day." 

SECTION  3. 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  THIRD  DAY. 

1.  A  GLOBE  of  vapor  in  contact  with  the  cold 
voids  of  space  must  condense  or  liquify.  The 
beginning  would  be  upon  the  outside  ;  constantly 
growing  heavier  according  to  bulk,  it  would 
work  its  way  nearer  to  the  sun.  Having  be- 


IN   THE    SIX   DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.        Ill 

come  a  center  of  attraction,  and  coming  back  to 
the  now  closed-up  ring,  it  would  claim  a  portion 
of  the  same  as  an  atmosphere.  Increasing  now 
its  centrifugal  force,  it  gained  an  orbit  inside 
the  ring,  still  drawing  nearer  the  sun.  Job's 
attention  had  been  called  to  the  earth's  appear- 
ance in  this  "gathering"  process.  "When  I 
made  the  cloud  the  garment  thereof,  and  thick 
darkness  a  swaddling  band  for  it."  Moses  began 
the  third  day  as  the  globe  began  to  condense. 
"  And  he  gathered  the  waters  together  into  one 
place;  and  he  called  the  gathering  together  of 
the  waters,  seas."  While  the  globe  was  in  a 
condition  of  vapor,  the  waters  were  firmament 
waters ;  and  the  word  firmament  answered  very 
well  for  both  globe  and  visible  expanse.  Hence, 
"God  made  a  firmament"  by  figure;  covered 
both.  But  as  soon  as  gathered,  there  was  a  dis- 
tinction. Now  only  the  expanse,  holding  yet  a 
cloudy  vapor,  could  be  called  firmament,  or 
heaven  ;  and  the  gathered  waters  he  called  seas. 


112      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

2.  Science  claims  that  the  present  pointing 
of  the  pole  of  the  Earth,  and  its  inclination  to 
the  ecliptic,  could  not  produce  such  a  warm 
climate  as  the  Earth  once  enjoyed.  This  fact, 
in  connection  with  the  Earth  covered  with  ice,  at 
a  remote  period  of  the  past,  confounds  the  mere 
seeker  of  cause  in  nature's  laws.  The  ancient 
pole-pointing  is  sung  by  Job.  According  to  his 
description  of  light  and  darkness,  one  pole  of  the 
Earth  must  have  pointed  directly  to  the  sun 
throughout  the  year.  And  as  that  warm  climate 
was  uniform,  it  must  have  turned  on  its  axis 

not  only  daily,  but  as  does  our  moon  in  refer- 

« 
ence  to  Earth,  once  over  in  its  entire  orbicular 

journey.  Its  enlightened  hemisphere  was  never 
in  darkness  ;  its  dark  hemisphere  was  never  in 
light.  According  to  Job's  statement,  both  light 
and  darkness  were  stationary.  u  Where  is  the 
place  where  light  dwelleth?  And  as  for  dark- 
ness,where  is  the  place  thereof,  that  thou  shouldst 
take  it  to  the  bound  thereof,  and  that  thou 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       113 

shouldst  know  the  paths  to  the  house  thereof?" 
All  our  deposits  then  hung  as  gases  in  the  air  ; 
one-half  of  which  science  proclaims  to  have  been 
oxygen.  In  the  language  of  Solomon,  the  moun- 
tains before  rising  must  have  first  "  settled  "  in 
the  sea.  The  psalmist  saw  that  God  spread  out 
the  earth  upon  the  waters,  that  he  founded  it 
upon  the  sea,  and  established  it  upon  the  floods. 
Job  saw  that  the  very  corner  foundation  stone 
was  made  to  sink.  Moses  rushes  the  deposits 
all  into  the  evening  of  the  third  day,  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  dry  land.  "  And  God  said,  Let  the 
waters  under  the  heaven  (the  new  firmament)  be 
gathered  together  unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry 
land  appear."  Here  are  eighty  miles  deposit 
made  in  the  sea,  all  of  which  came  out  of  the 
air  and  water.  During  this  time  Moses  says, 
"  The  Lord  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain  on  the 
Earth."  "  The  plant  and  the  herb  of  the  field 
had  not  yet  been  made." 

3.      With  such  a  pole-pointing,  only  one  end 


114      THE   NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

of  the  Earth  could  receive  deposits,  and  the 
sun  could  take  hold  only  of  that  end.  Job  al- 
ludes to  a  convulsion  in  which  "The  proud 
were  shaken  out  of  it,  that  the  sun  might  take 
hold  of  both  ends  of  it,"  38  :  13.  Before  this 
change,  "  The  waters  were  covered  as  with  a 
stone,  and  the  deep  was  frozen."  Deposits  are 
now  made  from  the  air  at  the  rate  of  four  hun- 
dredths  of  an  inch  in  a  year.  At  this  rate  it 
would  take,  possibly,  eighty  million  of  years  to 
reach  the  surface.  Our  globe  was  never  a  rain- 
less planet. 

4.  The  allusion  to  its  not  having  rained  on 
the  earth,  is  an  allusion  that  the  deposits  were 
yet  beneath  the  waters,  until  the  "  dry  land 
appeared."  Following  the  changes  of  organic 
life  up  to  the  time  of  the  deposits  of  the  u  Old 
Red  Sand  Stone,"  where  God  spread  out  the  wav- 
ing forests  of  the  Devonian  plain,  he  had  found 
the  fit  contrast  to  the  inorganic  deposit  of  the 
evening. 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.        115 

5.  The  climate  of  the  first  part  of  the  third 
day  was  chilled  to  the  temperature  of  melting 
ice.     The  latter  part  was  torrid.     The  equator 
marked  the  bound  between  perpetual    sunlight 
and  perpetual  darkness.     Along  this  equator  a 
line  of  open  sea  would  beat  against  a  line  of  per- 
petual ice.     The  spray  and  vapor  from  the  open 
sea,  going  south,  would  be    rapidly    converted 
into  snow  and  ice,  increasing  the  thickness  and 
gravity  of  the  ice.     At  length,  breaking  by  its 
own   weight,   it  would  drift  into  the  open   sea- 
During  the  first  part  of  this  day,  there  was  noth- 
ing to  prevent  this  drift-ice  finding  its  way  to  the 
very  north  pole.     The  sea,  therefore,  would  be 
at  a  temperature  of  32  degrees  Fahr. 

6.  After  the  deposits  neared  the  top,  and  be- 
fore dry  land  appeared,  the  larger    bergs  were 
kept  back,  and  tropical  waters  resulted,  followed 
by  the  same  climate  upon  the  dry  land,  as  it  ap- 
peared.    At  the  close  of  this  day  there  existed 
many  kinds  of  water  animals,  but  they  did  not 


116       THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY    DISPLAYED 

form  a  suitable  contrast  with  what  Moses  had  to 
start  with,  as  evening.  These  were  inorganic  de- 
posits from  the  air.  The  organic  deposits  of  the 
Devonian  forests  are  the  morning.  "  And  the 
earth  brought  forth  the  tree,  yielding  fruit,  whose 
seed  was  in  itself  (cryptogams)  after  his  kind." 
'  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
third  day." 

SECTION  4. 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  FOURTH  DAY. 

UP  to  the  Carboniferous  time  of  deposit,  the 
air  had  never  been  sufficiently  cleared  of  its  dark 
clouds  of  deadly  gases,  to  admit  sunshine  on  the 
earth.  Vegetation  had  not  reached  a  climax.  No 
mention  is  to  be  made  of  animals  existing,  until 
this  climax  is  reached.  It  will  be  reached  when 
the  sun  shall  have  taken  off  the  "  swaddling 
band  "  of  her  childhood,  and  depositing  the  same, 
as  coal,  in  the  earth,  shall  give  the  earth  a  cloth- 
ing of  flowers.  Non-flowering  plants  are  evening, 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       117 

the  contrast  will  be  the  flowering  plant  in  the 
sunshine. 

1.  By  figure  of  metonymy,  again  he  traced 
the  progress  of  deposits  through  the  sun,  which 
God  had  made,  with  the  moon  and  stars.  The 
labor  of  the  sun  to  clear  the  atmosphere,  calling 
for  immediate  help  of  God,  was  long  and  perse- 
vering. Poetically,  the  narrative  is  enriched  by 
this  elegant  figure,  in  putting  cause  for  effect. 
As  now  from  the  earth  for  the  first  time  he  be- 
holds the  clear  sunlight,  he  doubtless  is  remind- 
ed, that  in  mentioning  the  creation  of  this  center 
of  attraction  in  our  system,  he  had  given  a  name 
which  indicated  a  specific  property  of  the  sun, 
viz,  light ;  whereas  it  also  had  heat  and  force. 

Now,  calling  it  by  a  generic  name,  and  remem- 
bering also  that  in  describing  the  origin  of  Earth 
no  mention  had  been  made  of  the  rest  of  the 
heavens,  he  incidentally  mentions  that  God  made 
them  all,  without  attempting  the  individual  histo- 
ry of  either.  His  mission  is  to  trace  in  progress 


118      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

the  contrasting  changes  of  God's  work  in  the 
Earth.  And  to  his  text  he  adheres. 

Since  the  sun  is  the  only  source  of  permanent 
natural  light  within  our  system,  and  since  Moses 
had  made  light  to  contrast  with  the  darkness  of 
chaos  in  the  first  day,  it  seems  strange  that  any 
intelligent  reader  should  understand  him  to  speak 
of  the  bringing  into  existence  of  the  great  orb  of 
light  the  fourth  day.  Shining  in  on  the  earth  is 
all  that  is  noted. 

2.  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  the  great  English  geol- 
ogist, gives  us  the  process  by  which  sunlight  was 
let  in  on  the  earth  during  the  carboniferous  age. 
This  age  corresponds  to  the  fourth  day  of  Moses. 
The  dark  band  of  gases  intercepted  the  clear 
rays  of  sunlight,  so  that  a  somber  hue  of  gray 
covered  the  earth,  as  in  twilight.  Vegetation 
must  slowly  do  the  work  of  depositing  these  gas- 
es, until  diminished  so  that  fire,  or  flame,  could 
be  supported.  Such  was  the  resinous  and  oily 
nature  of  all  vegetation  of  that  period,  that  a 


IN   THE    SIX    DAY'S    WORK    OF    GOD.        119 

stroke  of  lightning  might  set  the  world  on  fire, 
to  burn  for  six  months  or  a  year.  Some  of  the 
carbonated  growth  of  the  forests  would  be  hidden 
away  beyond  the  reach  of  flame.  In  this  con- 
dition it  would  ripen  into  coal.  But  enough  car- 
bonic acid  would  escape,  to  intercept  the  clear 
rays  of  the  sun,  and  another  period  of  deposit 
would  set  in.  In  the  Nova  Scotia  coal  mines, 
alone,  he  had  noticed  one  hundred  of  these  burn- 
ings, implying  a  long  period  of  deposit  between 
each.  It  is  thus  the  long  ages  struggled,  to  ena- 
ble the  sun  to  kiss  the  vegetation  into  bloom. 
The  widely  scattered  coal  beds  of  this  period 
show  that  the  whole  earth  was  covered  with  a 
tropical  forest.  Large  veins  of  this  coal  are 
found  in  Greenland,  Nova  Zembla  Island,  Tas- 
mania, and  the  Melville  Islands. 

3.  We  have  had  subsequent  periods  of  de- 
posits of  carbon  in  forests  that  produced  coal. 
But  the  coal  formed  since  that  age  is  generally 
soft.  One  short  coal  period  occurred  this  side 


120      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

the  great  upheavals  of  mountains.  This  coal  is 
found  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  yields  only  forty- 
four  per  cent,  carbon.  The  best  coal  had  its  ori- 
gin before  the  flowers.  In  Moses'  prophetic  vis- 
ion of  the  work  of  the  sun,  he  grasped  certain 
points  in  the  future  of  astronomy. 

4.  He  noticed  the  use  an  enlightened  civili- 
zation would  make  of  the  motions  of  the  heav- 
ens. He  noticed  the  Zodiac  divided  into  signs, 
and  time  measured  by  three  clocks  of  nature, 
called  "  days,  years,  and  seasons."  The  sea- 
son clock  is  by  the  precession  of  the  equi- 
noxes, consuming  25,000  years  in  a  circle.  Mi- 
chael, the  archangel,  used  this  term  in  explana- 
tion of  the  "long  time  "  that  would  elapse  be- 
fore the  final  end.  With  the  clear  sunlight, 
the  climax  of  vegetation  was  reached.  Two  in- 
organic mornings  and  two  vegetable  mornings 
have  been  noted  ;  two  animal  mornings  remain 
to  finish  the  work  of  God  with  matter. 

"  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
fourth  day." 


IN  THE  SIX  DAY'S  WORK  OP  GOD.     121 

SECTION  5. 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  FIFTH  DAY. 

1.  THE  contrasts  of  evening  and  morning  of 
the  fifth  day  are  found  in  the  sea.  The  contrasts 
of  the  sixth  upon  the  land.  The  evening  of  the 
fifth  began  with  the  "  moving  things  of  the  sea," 
ending  with  the  "  whale."  With  the  exception  of 
the  first  day,  the  fifth  must  have  extended 
through  a  much  longer  time  than  all  the  others 
put  together.  The  contrast  between  moving 
diatoms  of  the  Gneiss  rock,  and  the  whale  of  the 
Miocene  in  size,  is  apparent.  But  the  contrast  is 
in  a  higher  sense.  All  this  long  period  to  the  Ter- 
tiary rock,  gave  only  egg-producing  animals. 
This  was  not  high  enough  in  the  scale  of  animal 
existence  to  have  the  next  evening,  which  must 
begin  with  the  fifth  morning,  to  form  a  contrast 
with  man.  The  type  of  the  highest  of  mammals 
must  be  reached,  and  that  in  the  sea.  This  was 
found  in  the  whale.  Beside,  the  whale  is  intimate- 


122     THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

ly  connected  with  the  great  geological  change 
caused  by  the  drift  period.  Here  ninety-seven 
per  cent  of  the  previous  animals  of  the  earth  be- 
came extinct.  Following  the  drift,  there  came 
into  existence  nearly  all  the  animals  that  now 
roam  the  Earth.  This  day,  then,  covers  all  the 
changes  of  the  fourth,  and  most  of  the  third ;  and 
of  course  has  nothing  to  do  with  a  measure  of 
time,  or  order  of  deposits. 

2.  For  aught  we  now  know,  the  starting  of 
animal  life  was  in  the  time  of  the  deposit  of  the 
Gneiss  rock — here  we  find  shells.  From  here 
onward  was  heard  the  voice  of  God,  "Let  the 
waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  crea- 
ture that  hath  life.''  This  life,  at  first,  was  very 
simple  ;  and  small  as  simple.  It  required  only 
the  nourishment  derived  from  water  for  its  sup- 
port. No  animals  of  any  considerable  size  are 
found  until  vegetables  were  furnished  for  their 
food.  Those  of  the  earlier  period  had  to  be  pro- 
tected from  the  carbonated  waters  by  a  bony 


IN  THE  six  "DAY'S  WORK  OF  GOD.     123 

covering  or  ivory  scales.  Scorpions,  spiders,  liz- 
ards and  frogs  might  breathe  the  carbonic  acid 
of  the  fourth  day ;  but  no  warm-blooded  animals 
are  known  to  have  existed  until  after  the  sun 
shone  in  upon  the  Earth,  as  a  fixture. 

3.  Here    Moses    noticed     the    existence   of 
"  fowls  of   the  air."      In  the  ichthyosaurus  he 
might  have  found  the  contrast  in  size,  but  not 
in  type. 

4.  He  passed  on  down  to  the  "  whale  as  morn- 
ing."     After    the     Carboniferous    deposits,    the 
tracks  of  birds  and  reptiles  are  found  in  the  an- 
cient sands  of   the  shores  of    the  waters.       Gi- 
gantic saurians  and  voracious  fish  ruled  the  sea 
for  untold  ages ;  but  as  they  all  were  oviperous, 
or  egg-producing,  they  are  ranked  in  the  even- 
ing.    Reaching  the  type  of  the  ruling  land  ani- 
mals   of   the    next    day,  Moses    pronounced  the 
morning  with  the  whale. 

5.  It  remains  a  mystery,  how  any  one  know- 
ing anything  about  geology  can  find  fault  with 


124     THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY    DISPLAYED 

the  order  of  the  Mosaic  record.  So  far  as 
Moses  has  mentioned  order,  it  is :  moving  ani- 
mals in  the  sea,  air  animals,  mammals.  The  or- 
der of  science  may  be  more  explicit.  Substan- 
tially it  is  protozones,  mollusks,  radiates,  articu- 
lates, vertebrates,  mammals.  There  is  no  con- 
flict, nor  even  deficiency.  The  term  used  by  Mo- 
ses is  designedly  generic  ;  covering  all  moving 
creatures  of  the  waters.  The  history  of  the 
rocks  is  in  exact  accord  with  the  testimony  of 
Moses  ;  and  both  verify  common  observation,  viz  : 
each  kind  of  animal  produces  its  own  kind. 

6.  The  poise  of  the  Earth  to  the  sun  was 
such  as  to  give  an  ice-flow,  whenever  for  any 
cause  a  great  subsidence  of  the  hemisphere  took 
place. 

The  largest  happened  when  the  last  and  high- 
est mountains  were  raised.  As  a  consequence, 
the  period  called  the  Drift  followed,  when  the 
reindeer  made  his  home  in  the  vicinity  of  Eng- 
land. Most  tropical  animals  were  destroyed. 


IN    THE    SIX    DAYS'    WORK    OF    GOD.       125 

A  new  race  of  placential  mammals  was  to  be 
introduced  ;  the  type  of  which  is  found  in  the 
sea,  able  to  endure  the  revolutions  of  the  Drift. 
Hence  the  wisdom  displayed  in  selecting  this 
animal,  as  a  representative  of  morning. 

7.  The  Scripture  claim  of  special  providence 
is  in  harmony  with  the  defence  of  the  same  in 
science.  Providence  is  general,  when  wrought 
out  in  due  course  of  law ;  special,  when  it  is  a 
power  added  to  nature.  Special  providence  is 
not  a  rule  of  action,  but  the  exception.  Science 
claims  this  much  in  nature.  I  refer  to  the  ad- 
missions of  such  men  as  Huxley,  Tyndal  and 
Darwin.  Prof.  Huxley  says :  "No  scientist  of 
the  present  day  will  venture  the  affirmation,  that 
matter  is  eternal.  Should  one  be  found,  his 
brethren  would  rise  up  in  court,  and  object  to  his 
testimony,  as  he  would  be  incompetent  to  testi- 
fy." If  not  eternal,  it  was  created  by  God's  spec- 
ial power.  Prof.  Darwin  says :  "  Some  of  our 
brethren  have  tried  by  experiments,  to  prove 


126      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

spontaneous  life  from  inorganic  matter,  but  they 
have  failed,  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
they  must  ever  fail."  "  There  must  have  been 
a  first  life,  I  think  five  forms,  I  know  there  must 
have  been  one  from  which  life  could  proceed." 
Special  providence  again  is  needed  to  start  life. 
The  same  principle  would  apply  as  many  times 
as  the  earth  may  have  lost  its  living  forms.  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  would  assure  you  that  the  fires  of 
the  Carboniferous  period  alone  deprived  the 
earth  of  all  land  and  fresh  water  animals,  plants 
and  seeds,  at  least  one  hundred  times.  Yet  it 
was  supplied  between  each.  Prof.  Tyndal  says, 
"  Do  you  ask  me  '  May  inert  matter  rise  up  and 
live?'  I  answer  directly,  'No,  life  must  have 
been  created."  Here  then  in  science  are  the 
Deists'  endorsements  of  exactly  what  every  en- 
lightened Christian  believes  in  reference  to  the 
covenant  of  salvation.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
science  of  today,  viz :  that  "  God  made  all  mat- 
ter at  one  and  the  same  time  ;  that  by  special 


IN    THE    SIX   DAY'S    WOKK    OF    GOD.       127 

power  he  put  all  parts  in  motion  at  one  and  the 
same  time ;  that  his  eye  is  over  all,  ready  to  sup- 
ply what  is  needed  above  what  the  machinery 
of  nature  can  perform."  Carry  out  this  princi- 
ple, and  you  have  the  manifestations  of  the  true 
God  in  Jesus,  and  every  Bible  theory  of  the  New 
Covenant. 

SECTION  6. 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  SIXTH  DAY. 

1.  BEASTS,  with  a  perishable  spirit,  are  the 
evening  of  the  sixth  day.  Man  without  an  im- 
mortal spirit  is  the  morning.  Here  we  shall  find 
the  grandest  contrast  of  any  of  the  six  days.  His- 
toric man  is  the  morning,  extending  to  the  end 
of  God's  work,  in  reference  to  matter. 

Duration  ceases  to  be  measured  at  the  close 
of  this  day.  Solomon  alludes  to  the  contrasts 
found  in  this  day.  "  Who  knoweth  the  spirit 
of  the  beast,  that  goeth  downward  ;  and  the  spirit 
of  man,  that  goeth  upward?"  For  a  long  time 


128      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED 

these  animals,  without  a  spirit  to  be  preserved, 
ruled  the  earth  as  kings,  "  without  any  one  to  till 
the  soil."  Jungles  and  forests,  mountains  and 
dales,  lakes  and  caves,  alike  afford  no  facts  incon- 
sistent with  this  statement  of  M  -uld 
science  ever  confirm  the  existence  of  a  race  pre- 
historic, resembling  man,  it  will  doubtless  be 
shown  that  they  were  not  a  contrast  with  be 
and  have  no  connection  with  our  race. 

2.  Our  race  undoubtedly  sprang  from  Adam 
than  six  thousand  years  ago.  Prehistoric 
man,  like  evolution,  rests  upon  the  hypotl 
of  men,  always  unsafe ;  but  in  this  case  unsup- 
ported by  a  well-attested  fact.  The  former  may 
claim  the  intuitions  of  that  class  of  persons  ever 
looking  up  the  genealogy  of  Cain's  wife  :  the  lat- 
ter has  the  common  sense  of  the  average  man 
against  him.  Upon  this  subject,  as  upon  every 
other  upon  which  the  Bible  preten  ?ak, 

"  If  they  speak  not  according  to  what  is  written, 
because  there  is  no  truth  in  them."    By  spec- 


IN    THE    SIX   DAY'S    WORK    OF    GOD.        129 

ial  revelation  man  saw  that  by  a  special  provi- 
dence of  God,  he  caused  the  ground  to  become 
the  mother  of  man  ;  and  from  this  creation  pro- 
ceeded, by  the  same  special  providence,  a  help- 
meet for  man.  She  has  ever  proved  herself  the 
great  help  in  the  march  of  civilization.  Facts 
show  that  man  gloriously  contrasts  with  the 
highest  types  going  before. 

3.  It  is  not  yet  a  settled  question  that  the  air, 
for  any  number  of  thousands  of  years  before 
Adam,  was  sufficiently  cleared  of  deadly  gases  as 
to  admit  of  human  breathing.  On  looking  upon 
the  coal  veins  of  Pennsylvania,  we  need  no  argu- 
ment to  show  that  man  could  not  have  breathed 
the  carbon  that  hung  in  the  air  of  that  period  of 
deposit.  The  mute  faces  of  the  coal  beds  of 
Ohio  forbid  man's  existence  then,  although  these 
succeed  the  former  by  millions  of  years.  Geolo- 
gists agree  that  the  Pacific  deposits  of  coal  have 
been  this  side  of  the  great  upheavals  of  the  large 
mountains.  If  man  had  been  living  then,  the 


130     THE   NEPTUNIAN   THEORY    DISPLAYED 

carbonic  acid  of  the  air  would  have  strangled  the 
life  out  of  him.  When  we  take  into  consideration 
how  very  slowly  a  continent  rises  out  of  the 
ocean,  and  that  both  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
coasts  had  to  rise  over  five  thousand  feet  to  ex- 
pose their  fruitful  valleys  ;  and  also  how  very 
long  a  period  had  to  elapse  after,  before  the  air 
would  be  laid  into  the  ground  by  vegetation,  we 
shall  readily  see  the  force  of  this  proposition, 
viz :  The  very  calculations  which  science  has 
given  us  bring  the  deadly  gases  very  near  to  the 
time  given  in  Genesis  for  the  creation  of  our  pres- 
ent race. 

The  volcanic  periods  of  the  world's  history 
argue  against  the  early  habitation  of  the  Earth 
by  man.  Every  volcano  is  a  vent  for  the  escape 
of  deadly  gases,  caused  by  the  consumption  of 
oils  and  coal  in  the  Earth's  strata.  The  enormous 
quantity  of  coal  consumed  is  but  faintly  indi- 
cated by  the  amount  of  ashes  thrown  out.  The 
mountains  give  evidence  of  recent  volcanic  dis- 


IN    THE    SIX   DAY'S    WORK    OF    GOD.       131 

turbance,  greatly  exceeding  the  present.  Ancient 
river  beds  are  found  into  whose  channels  the  de- 
bris of  the  mountains  had  been  dragged  by  the 
great  ice-flow,  until  leveled  over  to  the  height 
of  several  thousand  feet  ;  then  the  volcanic  era 
covered,  in  places,  this  drift  fifty  or  sixty  feet 
thick ;  thus  preserving  the  silt  from  being 
dragged  away,  as  the  waters  receded.  The  fact 
that  we  had  a  coal  period  following,  shows  that 
man  in  the  volcanic  period,  and  for  thousands  of 
years  after,  could  not  breathe  the  air.  Our  active 
volcanoes  are  reduced  to  about  three  hundred. 
Still  the  air  is  polluted  in  many  ways.  Smelting 
works,  forges  and  gas  plants  all  pollute  the  air. 
Every  cesspool,  every  whiff  of  burning  tobacco, 
adds  its  quota  to  air-corrupting.  Each  year  con- 
tributes to  deposit  a  portion  of  the  remaining 
carbon  of  the  air.  Kich  valleys  of  warm  zones 
are  not  yet  healthy.  We  still  go  to  the  mountains 
for  invigorating  air. 

5.     Evidently,  we  have   not  yet  reached  the 


132      THE    NEPTUNIAN    THEORY    DISPLAYED. 

climax  of  good  breathing  air.  Nature  discour- 
ages the  thought,  that  man  could  have  continued 
his  race,  in  any  time,  much  previous  to  that 
given  for  the  creating  of  Adam.  The  morning 
of  the  sixth  day  is  in  progress.  Prophecy  pre- 
sents the  coming  man  greatly  improved  over  the 
present.  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I 
work." 

6.  This  morning  ends,  when  the  angel  stands 
one  foot  upon  the  land,  his  right  hung  over  the 
sea,  with  his  left  hand  pointing  to  heaven,  pro- 
claiming that  time  shall  be  no  longer.  "  And 
God  rested  from  all  his  labor." 


UNIVEESITY  OF  CALIFOENIA  LIBEAEY, 
BEEKELEY 


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